Mar 24, 2014 | Racing
March 23, 2014
Sixteen Mikes, Ray Hall, and Time To Quit picked up wins in the first leg of the Bobby Weiss Series on Sunday night at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. Each of the three divisions of the series, which included three and four-year-old trotting colts, stallions, and geldings, carried a purse of $15,000.
Sixteen Mikes, driven by Mike Simons and trained by Gail Wrubel, scored in the first division as the 2-1 second choice in 1:56:3. In the second split, Ray Hall, with Tim Tetrick in the bike for trainer Mark Harder, controlled matters as the 1-5 favorite in 1:55.3. 1-9 favorite Time To Quit, piloted by Matt Kakaley for trainer Ron Burke, rolled in the final division in 1:56:4.
Mar 23, 2014 | Racing
March 22, 2014
Modern Family parlayed a pocket trip into a late-kicking victory in the Preferred Handicap featured trot on Opening Night Saturday at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. The race carried the night’s top purse of $25,000.
Leaving from post position #7 in a field of nine as the 4-5 favorite, Modern Family was sent to the front end early by driver/trainer Daryl Bier before ceding the lead in the front stretch to Daylon Magician. That pair stayed in the top two spots until the stretch, when Modern Family pounced to beat Daylon Magician by a length in 1:52:1. The mare Daylon Mircacle finished 3rd.
Modern Family, a 5-year-old stallion owned by Bier, Charles Dombeck, and Rich Poillucci, had won his previous start at the Meadowlands and now has three wins in his first seven races of the year. It was his 16th career victory and pushed his lifetime earnings to $326,322.
On the pacing side, the night’s top performance was turned in by Eighteen. Trained by Mark Ford and driven by Mark MacDonald, Eighteen won a condition pace in the night’s fastest time of 1:49:3.
Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs kicked off its season with 14 races. Racing in the early part of the season at the track takes place on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights with first post on those evenings at 6:30 PM ET.
Feb 14, 2014 | Racing
A double-header on Kentucky Derby Day and an additional day per week of racing in July and August are two of the changes in the new Pocono racing schedule for 2014, as announced by Vice President of Racing Operations, Dale Rapson.
Racing opens at the renowned 5/8 mile oval in Wilkes Barre, PA on March 22, and for the first few months of the new season, (March through June), will take place on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
Kicking off the stakes schedule on opening night will be the Bobby Weiss Late Closing Series for 3 and 4 year olds, named for the beloved former Director of Track Maintenance. Bobby retired in 2011, and was responsible for the record-breaking track surface that is maintained today. The finals for the series will take place starting April 19, and conclude on April 23.
The prestigious Sun Stakes Saturday is planned for Saturday, June 28th, and will feature the Earl Beal, Jr. Memorial 3-year-old Trot; the James Lynch 3-year-old Filly Pace; the Max Hempt 3-year-old Colt & Gelding Pace; and the Ben Franklin Free For All Pace. Eliminations will take place on Saturday, June 21st.
For the summer months of July and August, an extra day has been added. The race days will move to Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The track will race Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday September through closing in November. There will be no live racing the week of September 8th for the annual Oktoberfest celebration.
Kentucky Derby Day, May 3rd,, traditionally a huge celebration of racing and partying, will also boast a double-header with two Pocono live race cards. Post Time for the first card will be at 11 a.m., and the second will be immediately following the 140th running of the Derby. In between, there will be the Run for the Roses Hat Review and a huge party on the track apron. Live racing will immediately follow the second and third legs of the Triple Crown, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
Post Time for all racing nights is 6:30 p.m., with the season concluding on Saturday, November 22.
Nov 15, 2013 | Racing
Well, racing fans, we have just about reached the end of another amazing racing season at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. The Pocono meet ends up with a pair of added racing nights on Friday, November 22, and Saturday, November 23, a little more icing on what has been a particularly rich and tasty cake. After that, time to settle in, enjoy the holidays, and look forward to next year.
Still, for me anyway, I’m sure that a lot of those lazy winter days will be spent reflecting on the season that was. 2013 was my sixth year calling the races at Pocono and my 16th year at the track overall, and it was easily the most exciting one that I’ve ever witnessed. That doesn’t in any way denigrate some of the great years we’ve had in the recent past, but it all came together this year.
The obvious catalyst for the ridiculously thrilling action was the racing schedule. For many years, Pocono was home to just a couple of big-money stakes per year. That number of stakes races has steadily increased to the point where Pocono was pretty much the hub of the harness racing universe in 2013. There were three nights during the season that were dedicated to nothing but stakes races of the highest caliber, and each of those nights lived up to their lofty expectations, culminating with the scintillating thrills of Breeders Crown night in October.
Because of this abundance of stakes races held at MSPD in 2013, the local fans got several opportunities to witness the finest stars in the standardbred galaxy. When they name the sport’s horses of the year for 2013, it’s a safe bet that they will all have raced multiple times at the Pocono oval this season. Indeed some of the biggest names, like Captaintreacherous, I Luv The Nitelife, Bee A Magician, and Foiled Again, had their most memorable triumphs on the Pocono stage.
The easiest way to tell just how competitive the racing action has been in 2013 is to check out our track records page in the front of the program. A quick perusal of that page will show you that a stunning 20 of 24 groupings, which are separated by age, gait, and gender, have records which were set this season. Of those, 17 either set or matched world records for tracks that are 5/8-mile long like Pocono.
It is easy to get swept up in the equine accomplishments, but their human stars of the sport also helped to make Pocono racing so memorable. At press time, George Napolitano Jr. and Chris Oakes were poised to repeat as leaders in driving victories and training average, respectively. Rene Allard is headed to his first ever title in training wins. In driving UDRS, it was still too close to call between Jim Morrill Jr. and Ron Pierce.
Of course, those guys we mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. The Pocono driving community continues to be one of the most competitive groups in the country. In addition to Napolitano, Pierce, and Morrill, Matt Kakaley, Andrew McCarthy, and Tyler Buter all topped 100 wins this season at MSPD. Six more drivers had at least 50 victories, including Pocono newcomers Marcus Miller and Simon Allard.
The training colony was equally rugged. What was notable this season was how many of the nation’s top trainers made Pocono a destination instead of a pit stop. As a result, many of the names on the Pocono training leaderboard coincided with the list of the nation’s top statistical trainers. Oakes, Allard, and Ron Burke were the biggest winners on the training side, but the victories and purses were parceled out to a wide roster of excellent handlers in 2013.
There are far too many individual moments to recount in this relatively short article, but suffice it to say that I could have gone on for quite some time detailing all of the star-making performances and jaw-dropping upsets that kept the faithful on their toes all year long. I have the best seat in the house up in my announcer’s booth, and this year has never ceased to amaze, right from Opening night through these chilly final weeks.
As always, it’s been a pleasure and an honor to have this opportunity to share my thoughts and spread the facts about the racing at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. The best thing about 2013 might the feeling that I get that tells me that this year won’t be an aberration in terms of its quality and excitement. It feels like seasons like 2013 will be commonplace at the Pocono in the years to come.
So enjoy the final nights of racing at Pocono for this season and make sure to have a great holiday season. Until next year, we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
Nov 9, 2013 | Racing
November 1-7, 2013
As we have now reached the month of November, it’s time to start looking back on the season that was. While we still have some racing left to go, we would be remiss if out time ran out and we didn’t honor some of the best performers who have graced the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs stage in 2013. This week I’m proud to announce our 2013 Horses of the Year.
Although I had a little bit of input, most of the work in terms of tracking the best performances and making the selections was done by our Racing Marketing Manager Jennifer Starr and Clerk of Course Terri Phalen. It’s a difficult job, because of the sheer amount of great horses we have seen at the Pocono oval this season. These are fine choices though, a quartet of horses who are representative of the exemplary racing product that MSP had to offer in 2013. The envelopes, please.
PACER OF THE YEAR: DYNAMIC YOUTH
This 4-year-old gelding from the Aaron Lambert barn has been a standout at Pocono for a while now, but his 2013 season was one to remember. He made just six starts at MSPD this season, all against top-flight competition, and won four of them. All four of his victories, with his regular Pocono driver Andrew McCarthy aboard, came in times of less than 1:50.
Dynamic Youth delivered some especially eye-opening wins this year. In June, he won elimination for the Ben Franklin pace in a field that included superstar pacers Betterthancheddar, Clear Vision, and Golden Receiver. On October 5, his second of back-to-back wins in the Preferred pacing class came in a scorching time of 1:48:1, which matched a world record for 4-year-old geldings on the pace. No other horse had such consistent success at the top levels at Pocono than this one, which is why Dynamic Youth is deserving of this outstanding honor.
TROTTER OF THE YEAR: BEATGOESON HANOVER
A 5-year-old mare trained by Nifty Norman, Beatgoeson Hanover served notice that she would special at Pocono this season with her very first start of the meet, a condition win back in April 27 that came in 1:52:1, matching a track record for aged trotting mares. She followed that up with a Preferred win the next week.
When she returned to the Preferred trotting class at Pocono in August, she outdid herself with a winning mile of 1:51:4 with Tyler Buter in the bike, which broke not just her own track record but a world record for her age group on a 5/8-mile oval. Add in a respectable 5th place performance in the Breeders Crown finals and another easy Preferred win on October 26 and you can see why this mare gets the nod in this very competitive category.
MARE OF THE YEAR: FEELING YOU
The pride of the Amber Buter barn is without a doubt this gutty 6-year-old mare. Pocono has been just one of her stops this season and she has made the rounds to just about all of the best East Coast tracks. But it was her performance against the best distaff pacers at MSPD that earned her this award.
In five starts in the Preferred Mares pacing class, which is the top of the heap for distaffers at Pocono, Feeling You, with Tyler Buter in the bike, won three times and finished a close second in the other two. Last Friday night may have been her signature victory. Following a disappointing 7th-place finish in the Breeders Crown, she won a Preferred Handicap over a field that included Rocklamation, who finished 2nd in the Breeders Crown, and Drop The Ball, the world record holder in the age group. That victory shows that Feeling You was as good as any pacing mare this season.
CLAIMER OF THE YEAR: ST. PETE STAR
This was probably the toughest category to choose, because there were many claimers who had dominant stretches in their respective divisions. St Pete Star gets the nod for the fact that he put together an impressive record and did so when he was either near or at the very top of the claiming ladder.
Although he tailed off at the end of the season, St Pete Star, a 9-year-old stallion, had an awesome stretch from late April to the middle of August where he won eight of thirteen races and raised his claiming price from $15,000 to $25,000 in the process. He won for five different trainers in that span because he was a popular claiming commodity. At one point he won four in a row and six of seven, with a career-best victory of 1:49:2 in that span. All of those statistics tell you what anybody who saw St Pete Star at the peak of his powers this year would know: That he was the best of the best of the claimers at Pocono in 2013.
Next week we’ll wrap up the season with our final article of the year. Until then, we’ll see at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
Nov 4, 2013 | Racing
November 2, 2013
Driver Howard Parker won a condition trot aboard Guiltywithanexcuse in Saturday night’s 14th and final race at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs to earn his 5,000th career victory. Parker, who started his driving career in 1977 and has made Pocono his home track for the past few seasons, added to career earnings of over $45 million with the win. The entire racing department at Pocono would like to congratulate Howard on his amazing achievement.
