Mar 9, 2016 | Racing
The first Qualifiers of the Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono’s 2016 season were held at the track in Northeast Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning, March 8th. Under partly sunny skies and a temperature of nearly 60 degrees, 6 trotting and 5 pacing qualifying races were held.
The fifth qualifying race, a trot, saw the fastest time of the trotters of 1:56.4 for Chipoffthewall, a three-year-old black gelding trained by Syl King Jr. and driven this morning by one of Pocono’s leading drivers, Anthony Napolitano.
The fastest pacing time belonged to Toatsmygoats in the eighth race. John Kakaley drove the four-year-old gelding trained by Nick Surick, who finished in 1:54.
The second Qualifying races of the season are set for Wednesday morning, March 9th, at 10:00a.m., with 11 more on tap. Next Wednesday, March 16th, is also set aside for qualifiers, and each Wednesday after that.
The track opens for their 2016 season on Saturday, March 19th with a Post Time of 6:30p.m. In March, racing will be held on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and in April, racing moves to the regular schedule of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday.
Sep 21, 2015 | 50th anniversary of racing, Racing
Drivers Simon Allard and Anthony Napolitano pretty much had a “wire-to-wire” domination of the Friday night, September 18th card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, with the second- and third-leading driver at The Downs, respectively, each guiding five winners — Allard four of the card’s first five and Napolitano four of the last five.
Allard almost opened the card with a natural five-bagger, taking races 1, 3, 4, and 5, and losing the second by only a head. He also just missed by a nose in the seventh, which may have been the tipping of the night’s power, because Anthony Napolitano’s horse was just barely more photogenic for his first of his evening’s quintet. He then beat Allard — by a length, a big margin this night — in the tenth to start his 4 for 5 finish.
Both Simon Allard and Anthony Napolitano have brothers who also campaign at Pocono — in fact, they are respectively the leading trainer and driver at the mountain oval, Rene Allard and George Napolitano Jr., and both of them also had productive days. Rene Allard had four wins on the card, including sending out three of Simon’s five (and the photoed-out streak interrupter in the second), with his fourth winner guided for Rene by — um, Anthony Napolitano (and yes, that was the 10th race, where Simon was second as mentioned above).
George Napolitano Jr. visited Victory Lane twice Friday at Pocono and hit the board in nine of ten drives, following a 9-4-2-0 afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia — the third straight day he’s had at least four wins at Philly. Today’s six wins gives him a staggering 20 in the last three days (including his ten-bagger on Wednesday between the two plants), and he has 54 winners through the 18th day of the month in a (very outside) pursuit of a third straight month with 100 or more sulky triumphs.
Aug 31, 2015 | 50th anniversary of racing, Racing
How do you follow-up on a month when you win 100 races?
Well, if you’re George Napolitano Jr., you go out the next month and win 105.
Having won 100 races in the month of July while racing exclusively at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono and Harrah’s Philadelphia, the leading driver at both tracks went out and even topped his previous month by winning 105 races in August, capped by seven winners on the month’s “closing day” (both tracks are closed Monday.)
The actual “consecutive double century” milestone came at Harrah’s on Sunday afternoon when “George Nap” won the sixth race with Reggiano. Appropriately, the winner came from the barn of Gil Garcia-Herrera, Philly’s leading trainer and a regular customer for Napolitano’s services. (#99, Lispatty, also came from under Gil’s shedrow.)
The Reggiano victory was the middle of three on the afternoon for George; he then went to Pocono and added four more, including another for Garcia-Herrera. For the month, Napolitano won 50 times at Chester and 55 at Pocono.
Napolitano, 49, didn’t start driving until the relatively-advanced age of 26, but he has certainly made up for lost time, with 7167 career victories. His victory with the sophomore trotting filly Sistas, against males and older horses, on Saturday assured him of his sixth straight year with 500 or more wins, starting in 2010 when he won the North American title with 748 visits to Victory Lane.
Napolitano has a huge lead in the current Pocono stands, and should he remain atop the Pocono pack until season’s end, he will earn his ninth dashwinning title at the northeast Pennsylvania mountain oval — breaking his current share of the record of eight titles that he co-holds with Bill Lambertus.
George’s brother Anthony is the third-leading driver at Pocono, and fans frequently see a “Nap-Nap” photo finish. In fact, on Sunday evening George won the fourth race with True Hero by a nose over Anthony and Scootchie; Anthony “returned the favor” in race 10 by teaming with Magic Tricks to hang a head loss on George and the horse Vengeance.
Aug 10, 2015 | Racing
Musselsfrmbrussels, nearly ten lengths off a wild early pace by Getitoffyourchest at the 3/4, rallied strongly to win the $24,000 featured pace at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Saturday, edging Malak Uswaad N by a nose in 1:49.1.
After there not being a 1:20 or less clocking to the 3/4s in 2015 North American harness racing after the eighth month’s seventh day, the next day produced two within eight hours and seven minutes — State Treasurer’s 1:19.4 in winning the U.S. Pacing Championship at The Meadowlands, and here Geitoffyourchest getting off unbelievable numbers of 25.1, 52.2, and 1:19.4, with driver Simon Allard kicking out the earplugs nearing the 3/4 even though his pacer had an 8-length lead.
Allard was proven correct in his concern for keeping his horse going, as Malak Uswaad N was rapidly gaining uncovered for Jim Morrill Jr.,with Musselsfrmbrussels and Anthony Napolitano right on his back. Malak Uswaad N took the lead in midstretch, but “ANap” kept after Musselsfrmbrussels (named after Jean-Claude Van Damme), and he took the measure of his foe right on the line. (Getitoffyourchest wound up sixth.)
The winning son of Modern Art is conditioned by Pocono’s leading trainer, Rene Allard, who had three winners on the night at press time, as did Pocono’s leading driver George Napolitano Jr. The career winner of $549,383 equaled his lifetime mark for 2/3 of the partnership that owned Pocono’s Friday feature winner Yagonnakissmeornot, Allard Racing Inc and Yves Sarrazin, with Serge Bureau also a partner on Musselsfrmbrussels.
Aug 10, 2015 | Racing
July 31-August 6, 2015
As we head into the month of August, all of us at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono are keeping our eyes on the coming weeks, specifically the span from August 14th to the 22nd when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the track with a series of promotions and events on and off the track. Until we get there though, we still have plenty of outstanding racing to enjoy. This week’s action was particularly feisty and fine, as you’ll be able to tell from this edition of the Weekly Awards.
PACER OF THE WEEK: R GAUWITZ HANOVER
Claimers often get an unfortunate and often inaccurate rap that they’re somehow inferior to condition pacers and trotters. Week after week that fallacy is disproven, both by the comparable times between the two types of races and by the fact that several former claimers have moved on to be successful in condition and even Open races. And certainly there has been no horse in any type of race who’s been as impressive as R Gauwitz Hanover, who competes in mid-priced claimers, has been the past few weeks at Pocono.
In his last five races heading into a $15,000 claiming event on Saturday night, R Gauwitz Hanover had three second-place finishes sandwiched around a pair of wins. The 6-year-old gelding had achieved that streak while switching barns three times. On Saturday night, racing for trainer Paul Holzman, he was made the 1-5 favorite, and he had to respond when John’s Polyview aggressively took the lead and burned off sizzling fractions.
Driver George Napolitano Jr. never flinched though, and he began guiding R Gauwitz Hanover closer and closer on the back stretch until he blew by. The gelding didn’t stop until he was eight lengths out in front of the rest for the victory. His winning time of 1:49 was not only his career mark, it was also the fastest mile of the week by anybody at Pocono. Don’t let anyone tell you claimers are somehow a lower class of horse, at least not while R Gauwitz Hanover is there to prove otherwise in such convincing fashion.
Other top pacers this week include: GD Airliner (Simon Allard, Rene Allard), who didn’t let a month-and-a-half layoff stop him from picking up his second straight condition victory on Saturday night, this one coming in 1:52; Kiss Of Terror (Simon Allard, Dean Eckley), a 3-year-old who rallied at 10-1 on Sunday night for a condition win, his second straight, in 1:54:1; and Spirit Of Desire (Anthony Napolitano, Timothy Lancaster), who captured Wednesday night’s featured condition pace for mares in 1:52.
TROTTER OF THE WEEK: PRAIRIE FORTUNE
This 3-year-old gelding from the barn of trainer Mike Deters just knows his way to the winner’s circle. After a 2-year-old campaign in which he won three of six races, he’s been even tougher to stop in 2015. Other than an upset loss at Tioga, Prairie Fortune has been spotless, winning his other four races while splitting time between Pocono and Tioga.
His last win at Pocono on July 28 came in a career-best time of 1:53:4, but it was with the non-winners of three. Wednesday night figured to be a tougher test as he stepped up to face the non-winners of five. After sitting fourth in the early part of the mile, driver Matt Kakaley started Prairie Fortune in motion on the straightaway of the front stretch and easily reached the lead.
From that point on, nobody was even able to put a scare in the gelding, as he held a comfortable lead which he then extended once they turned for home. Prairie Fortune ended up handling his competition effortlessly by 4 ½ lengths in 1:54:3. That’s what you call moving up in class in style, and it’s what you call a horse that just doesn’t plan on losing anytime soon.
Honorable mention on the trotting side includes: House Of Cash (Joe Pavia Jr., Ron Burke), who captured the week’s featured condition trot on Saturday night in a career-best 1:54; Uriel (Scott Zeron, Luca Derrico), who rallied for a tough condition win on Wednesday night in a career-best 1:53:4, which was the fastest trotting time of the week at Pocono; and Sonnyforall (Bill Mullin driver and trainer), who picked up a condition win on Wednesday night in 1:56.
LONG SHOT OF THE WEEK: HOUSE OF CASH
This trotter with Joe Pavia Jr. in the bike started Saturday night’s racing off with a band, upsetting a condition field at 24-1 for a $51 payoff on a $2 win ticket.
DRIVER OF THE WEEK: AKE SVANSTEDT
He’s an outstanding trainer, but Svanstedt also drives a lot of his winning trainees, like he did on Sunday night when he guided three 2-year-old trotters to their maiden wins in his only three drives of the night.
TRAINER OF THE WEEK: DEAN ECKLEY
Eckley has been a name to watch all season long at Pocono, and three more wins this week, including a double on Sunday night, will ensure that continues to be the case.
That will do it for this week, but we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
