Cohen Trot, McGuire Trot at Yonkers Raceway Remember Sports Legends

Two revered sports figures, beloved harness racing enthusiasts, and champion “good guys” – legendary publicist Mike Cohen and Hall of Fame hoop star Dick McGuire – will be remembered in New York Sire Stakes trotting events on Friday, August 7th, and Monday, August 10th at Yonkers Raceway.

The annual $151,625 Mike Cohen Trot for two-year-old fillies gets the party started on August 7th, with five $30,325 divisions paying homage to the superb PR man, whose storied career included stays at Manhattan College, Yonkers Raceway, NBC Sports, and his own public relations firm. The Rockland County native passed away prematurely 27 years ago, and the stakes was named in his honor soon after.

The Cohen divisions are carded as the evening’s 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th races.

On-air Broadcast greats such as Bob Costas, Marv Albert, Marty Glickman and Spencer Ross, and executive producer Michael Weisman were publicized, strategized and advised by Cohen. Always ready to lend a helping hand, Cohen served as a mentor to a boatload of young publicists before his untimely passing, and dozens learned the PR craft from this immortal.

Cohen was appropriately dubbed “Inky” for all the press he generated. His wife Linda and sons Todd and Ross will be in attendances for the tribute races.

How about this for exacta hunch play in the second Cohen division, carded as the fourth race: Bundle of Energy (Ray Schnittker) and Time to Talk (Jim Morrill, Jr.), Cohen personified!

The sixth annual Dick McGuire Trot, inaugurated in 2010 and remembering the Knicks and St. John’s point guard and basketball Hall of Famer, is on tap for August 10th, at Empire City Casino’s historic half-mile oval.

The New York Sire Stakes for three-year-old colts and geldings has a total purse of $163,874, split into two divisions each worth more than $81,000 apiece, as the 6th and 7th races on the card.

The “McGuire” pays tribute to the ardent $2 horse player who starred at St. John’s University and then at Madison Square Garden with the Knickerbockers as one of the game’s greatest playmakers.

Members of the McGuire family who have been on hand for past renditions have included Dick’s wife Teri, sons Richard, Scott and Michael, daughter Leslie, Dick’s brother John, numerous grand-children, and a slew of old friends.

McGuire was a racing devotee, and could be regularly found at harness and thoroughbred tracks across the country, including the venerable Yonkers half-mile oval, and wherever his Knicks scouting missions and training camps might take him.

Apostles Creed (Dan Dube) is the McGuire hunch in the first division, since he was a devout church-goer, and his first mission when arriving in a city was to find the town’s Catholic Church; second mission to find the nearest race track.

The deft-passing McGuire was a five-time NBA All-Star and led the Knicks to three straight NBA Finals in the fifties. His number 15 was retired to the Madison Square Garden rafters in 1992, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame the following year.

Gone but never forgotten, Mike Cohen and Dick McGuire, and their legacies will be continued in the coming nights on the Hilltop.