Jun 16, 2015 | Racing
PA-sired three-year-old trotting fillies provide the early week features at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, as the misses will compete in second leg action of a $100,000 Stallion Series event on Tuesday, June 16th, and a $222,867 Sire Stakes contest on Wednesday, June 17th. All of the races have drawn full fields of nine.
The Stallion Series races will find three of the five first leg winners returning, including two from the ubiquitous, unavoidable Team of Top Trotting, Team Takter. Kirsi Hanover, who won her first Stallion start despite suffering broken equipment, drew the inside in the sixth race fourth division, with Jimmy Takter himself also to drive, while Speak To Me, beginning from post seven in the tenth race last cut, will be handled by Scott Zeron. Manhattan Miss, the other filly looking to make it two straight in the Stallion Series, has the rail for driver Mike Wilder and trainer Marty Wollam in the third race second division; the other Stallion Series races are slotted for races one and four.
In Wednesday’s Sire Stakes action, Trotting Team Ubiquitous had two of the four first leg winners, and Takter has them both back in at Pocono. Sarcy will be out first of the pair in the ninth race second division, with Yannick Gingras down to drive, but she will be facing the two non-Takter winners at The Meadows: Livininthefastlane (post five, driver Andy Miller for trainer/wife Julie), the fastest of the four winners in western PA at 1:53, and Magic Marker, who will begin from post seven for driver David Miller and trainer Nifty Norman.
The other Sires winner to date, Wild Honey, begins from post four for Takter and Gingras in the tenth race third division. Wild Honey was rated by many as the second-best filly nationally in 2014 behind the brilliant but mercurial Mission Brief, and she will look to add to her impressive record of 11 wins in 13 career starts.
In the seventh race first division, Takter may again have a favorite in Smexi, who was a neck behind Livininthefastlane in the first leg and has since taken a division of the Curries And Ives Filly stake. But driver Corey Callahan will have to overcome both the outermost post nine and Blessings Counted (post eight, driver Dan Rawlings for trainer Rick Beinhauer), also second, to Magic Marker, in the first Sire Stakes round.
Both nights feature 14-race cards beginning at 6:30 p.m.
May 4, 2015 | Racing
The chalk was perfect Sunday night, May 3, at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in three divisions of a $96,000 Pennsylvania All-Stars event for three-year-old trotting fillies.
First up was Focus On Me, a daughter of SJ’s Caviar who is now perfect in two seasonal starts after rallying from the pocket into a 28.1 last quarter to catch pacesetting Fly Angel Fly by a neck while taking a race mark of 1:56.4. Dan Rawlings handled the driving for trainer Rick Beinhauer, of Sierra Kosmos fame (he is the first and antepenultimate listing, among others, in the 347 “prior owners” of the horse listed by the USTA), and Rick and his wife Regina both own and bred the promising filly.
Livininthefastlane, 2-3 in the two weeks of the Breeders Crown last year, surely lived up to her name in her seasonal debut, making an early move to the lead and storming home in 27.3 to post a 1:54 clocking that missed her 2YO record by a tick. The daughter of Donato Hanover races for Team Orange Crush, trainer Julie Miller and driver/husband Andy, and the well-known ownership triumvirate of Marvin Katz, Al Libfeld, and Sam Goldband.
The “Crushers” were right back in Pocono’s Victory Lane with another daughter of Donato Hanover, as Sky Hanover, now undefeated in four seasonal outings, had to survive the first-over grind in withstanding the horse on her back, Big Barb, by a half-length in 1:56.1. Sky Hanover is owned by the Andy Miller Stable Inc., Little E LLC, Banyan Farms and Westminster Road LLC.
Apr 21, 2015 | Racing
April 11-17, 2015
Next week in this space we’ll be talking about the finals of our Bobby Weiss late closer series, races which will be taking place over the next few racing nights at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. The Weiss preliminary legs have featured some of the most exciting younger horses in the country, so the finals should be filled with great performances. In the meantime, we’ve got the best of this week’s overnight action on display with this edition of the Weekly Awards.
PACER OF THE WEEK: BUSHWACKER
It’s always interesting to watch four-year-old horses make the transition from facing horses their own age to competing with older foes. Those who make that transition smoothly are often the ones who end up battling it out in the upper conditions and Opens at their respective tracks. Bushwacker, a talented 4-year-old gelding, is already making that transition at Pocono even as he has only just started his 2015 campaign.
At ages two and three, Bushwacker, trained by Chris Ryder, performed very well, earning over $200,000 combined in those seasons by facing tough competition. He kicked off his 4-year-old season extremely well, winning against non-winners of five on a sloppy track at Pocono in 1:52:3 on March 31. The field he faced on Saturday night, a condition for non-winners of $15,500 in the last starts, featured only one other four-year-old; everybody else in the field was at least a year older.
Yet Bushwacker didn’t seem at all stressed out by the step up in class. With Jim Morrill Jr. in the bike, he took a tough first-over path but managed to take over the lead late. From there he stayed strong, holding on to win by a length in a sharp 1:51. That makes him two-for-two in the young season and puts all of the top pacers at Pocono, even the veterans, on notice that Bushwacker is ready to roll at any level.
Other top pacers this week include: Always Wanna (Simon Allard, Rene Allard), who changed barns but still rolled to his third consecutive victory over the $12,500 claimers on Saturday night, this one coming in 1:53:2; Mustang Art (Jim Morrill Jr., James McGuire), whose win in Saturday night’s featured condition pace came in 1:50, fastest time of the meet up to that point; and Major Deagan (Jim Morrill Jr., Tracy Brainard), a 17-1 shot who rallied to win a condition pace on Tuesday night in a career-best 1:50, matching the standard set by Mustang Art three nights before.
TROTTER OF THE WEEK: TAMASIN HALL
A five-year-old mare from the barn of Bill Mullin, Tamasin Hall has proven in the past her ability to put together a big mile on the Pocono oval. Like many trotters, she occasionally struggles with breaking stride, but when she’s flat she’s dangerous. She showed that in her first start of the 2015 meet at Pocono when she rallied to beat a condition trotting field on March 31 in 1:56:3.
Her next start, against the same class, resulted in only a fifth-place finish, but that one could be written off somewhat by the fact that she had to deal with the dreaded #9 post position. She came back to face the same group of non-winners $12,500 in the last five starts on Tuesday night, and though her #7 post position was no pleasure cruise, it gave her a better chance to flash some early speed. With Jim Morrill Jr. in the bike, she worked her way to the front end on the front stretch.
From there she rebuffed all those who tried to take the lead away. Morrill urged her home in the stretch to win by a length over You Rock My World in an impressive winning time in 1:53:2. That was a pretty good performance, especially considering she got away as a 6-1 shot. With two wins in three starts so far in the 2015 Pocono meet, it looks like Tamasin Hall will be a hot trotter once again this season.
Honorable mention on the trotting side goes to: Chocoholic (Andrew McCarthy, James Quinn), who matched a career-best she knocked off a rugged condition group on Tuesday in 1:55; Buffalino Hanover (Andy Miller, Todd Schadel), who toughed out a first-over move to win a condition trot on Tuesday night in 1:54:2; and GJ Photo Victory (Jim Morrill Jr., Marcus Marashian), whose claiming victory on Wednesday night in 1:54:3 was his fourth straight, the last two of which came at Pocono.
LONG SHOT OF THE WEEK: DIVINATION
On Sunday night this mare driven by Anthony Napolitano snuck out of the pocket late to surprise a field of condition pacers at 34-1, paying off $71 on a $2 win ticket.
DRIVER OF THE WEEK: SIMON ALLARD
Simon did some serious damage on Saturday night in conjunction with his brother Rene (see below), ripping off seven driving victories, a personal best for him here at Pocono.
TRAINER OF THE WEEK: RENE ALLARD
The two-time defending champion in training wins made his first big splash of 2015 on Saturday night by teaming with his brother Simon for seven wins on the 14-race program.
That will do it for this week, but we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
Apr 8, 2015 | Racing
Four of the first five winners at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Tuesday night, April 7th, paid the 5 cents to a dollar legal minimum profit in winning, including three visitors to Victory Lane during $15,000 third round series action of the Bobby Weiss Series – with the quartet tallying by a combined 21 lengths.
The trotting males were up first, and two Meadowlands invader took all the money, both pari-mutuel and purse. First up was the Crazed gelding JL Cruze, who has already bankrolled $133,000+ this year winning three series at the Jersey oval and racking up an effortless 12¼-length score in his mountain debut for trainer Eric Ell and driver John Campbell. The winner tripped the timer in 1:54.1 over a sloppy surface after making every pole a winning one for owners Ken Wood, William Dittmar Jr., and Stephen Iaquinta.
Opulent Yankee, who has caused the “2” in JL Cruze’s 11-9-2-0 season’s record, was next up, and he was 3½ lengths to the good at the end of his 1:54.2 triumph. Team Orange Crush, driver Andy and trainer Julie Miller, guide the fortunes of the Muscles Yankee gelding for Little E LLC, Arthur Geiger, Jason Settlemoir, and David Stolz.
In the first of two pacing mare divisions, the Burke / Weaver Bruscemi entry took all the money and finished 1-2, as Donttellruss got her first Weiss win in two starts, turning back Allthatjazz De Vie, who was successful in her initial series outing, in 1:53.3. Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi share ownership of the Andrew McCarthy-driven winning daughter of Panspacificflight with Lawrence Karr and Frank Baldachino.
In the second distaff sidewheelers cut, a Burke entry was also favored, but they had to settle for second and third behind the only two-time Weiss winner in this section, the Somewheresomebeach mare The Beach NextDoor, taking a new mark of 1:53 under the guidance of Jim Morrill Jr. The winner’s dam is named On The Choo Choo, and those are the tactics Morrill successfully employed for trainer Brewer Adams and the partnership of Adams Racing LLC and Brian Clark.
The fourth 1-20* horse, in the card’s opener, was the well-regarded altered son of The Panderosa, Heavenly Knox, who made short work of his assignment in a personal best of 1:51.3. Triumphant in the Walter Russell Series Final at The Meadows in his last start, Heavenly Knox is now 8 for 9 lifetime, with driver David Miller and trainer Mark Ford entrusted with the care of the winner by new owners George and Rose Bonomo.
The four “sureshots” attracted plenty of money “underneath” as well, as $60,000 to show among all but JL Cruze; his race had no show betting, so over $20,000 went into the place pool on him.
(But all is not chalk in the Pocono pari-mutuels: Hall of Famer John Campbell paid $25.60 to win in a race on the card, and he finished third, beaten a length, at 75-1 in another.)
Apr 17, 2014 | Racing
April 16, 2014
Even with a substitute driver, Take The Money and Perfect Alliance continued to dominate Bobby Weiss series action at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs with easy wins on Wednesday night. Two $15,000 divisions of the Weiss were held for three and four-year-old trotting fillies and mares.
With regular driver Andy Miller injured, trainer Julie Miller turned to Yannick Gingras to pilot the two four-year-old mares. He delivered, as Take The Money (Donato Hanover-Repititions) coasted in her split to a win in a career-best 1:55:4 and Perfect Alliance (Credit Winner-Yalta Hanover) strolled to a victory in 1:54:4. The pair are now a combined 13-for-13 in 2014 starts, including three Weiss wins apiece heading into next week’s group final.
