Hillexotic too tough in Yonkers Open

Harness racing highstepper Hillexotic (Muscle Hill) proved to be too tough as he wired the field in capturing the $36,000 Open Handicap Trot at Yonkers Raceway Thursday (Oct. 12) evening.

Driven by Yannick Gingras, Hillexotic started the 7^th race feature from post five and worked his way to take the early lead away from Stormy Kromer (Daniel Dube) by the opening quarter mile in :27.4.

From there Hillexotic and Gingras cut fractions of :57 and 1:25.1 with no one pulling on their right lines to challenge. Coming down the stretch, Hillexotic held his lead to the wire, winning by one-half lengths over the fast-closing Papperdelle (Joe Bongiorno) with Stormy Kromer third.

It was the second straight win for Hillexotic, who just last week scored a 22-1 upset win in the $250,000 Dayton Trotting Derby. This was his ninth victory of the season for trainer Ron Burke. The six-year-old gelding is owned by Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi and Phillip Collura. He paid $2.70 to win.

HILLEXOTIC REPLAY

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

by Steve Wolf, for Harnesslink