First Friday boasts All-Stars stars

Jul 14, 2015 | Racing

The father/son team of driver Marcus and trainer Erv Miller accounted for half of the six divisions of a $180,000 Pennsylvania All-Stars event for state-sired two-year-old pacing colts on the first Friday card of the season at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, while driver Dave Palone and trainer Ron Burke bookended the action for babies.
The fastest of the three wins for Team Miller was the 1:53.3 triumph of He’s Marvalous, a son of Delmarvalous (hence the spelling: remember the Del(aware)-Mar(yland)-V(irgini)a peninsula). He’s Marvalous made every pole a winning one while closing in 56 – 27.1 for the combine of Badlands Racing LLC and L. A. Express Stable LLC.
Also flying the Miller colors in Victory Lane were the McArdle colt McDave, longest price of the six at
7-1, as he rallied from the pocket into back splits of 55.1 – 27.2 to score in 1:53.4 for owners Ronald Michelon and David & John Prushnok, along with Ideal Jimmy, an altered son of Western Ideal who was a “pocket rocket,” gaining into a 27.4 kicker to stop the clock in 1:54 for owner D R Van Witzenburg.
Palone/Burke got the evening’s stakes action underway with a victory with the Well Said colt Genovese, who made a backstretch brush of 26.4 in going from fifth to the lead and then on to victory in 1:53.2. Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Jack Piatt III, and The Panhellenic Stable Corporation own Genovese; the first two share ownership with the JJK Stables LLC and Lawrence Karr of the other Palone/Burke winner, the Yankee Cruiser colt Allie’s Cruiser, who made a quarter-move and then sped home in 27.1 to complete a 1:53 victory,.
The 1:53 time of Allie’s Cruiser equaled the fastest clocking of the stakes sextet, which was earlier put up by a colt sired by The Panderosa, Bank Shot Hanover, in familiar style for driver George Napolitano Jr. – on the engine – trainer Daniel Renaud and owner Robert DiNozzi.

Burke and Kakaley sweep Weiss divisions

Apr 7, 2015 | Racing

Trainer Ron Burke and driver Matt Kakaley swept both $15,000 divisions of the third leg of the Bobby Weiss Series for pacing males Saturday night, April 4th, at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, with Victory At Last now 3-for-3 in the series and Major Uptrend making his initial Weiss start a winning one.
After winning by a head in the first two legs, the Quik Star Mindale gelding Victory At Last had it relatively easy in the third, coming out of the pocket and gaining into a 55.4 final half to defeat Shadow Margeaux, the only other previous Weiss winner in his division, by ¾ of a length while taking a new mark of 1:52.1 for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
Major Uptrend, a big factor in the winter series at The Meadowlands, had made breaks in his last two outings, in the Sagamore Hill Series at Yonkers, and the switch to the more spacious oval proved a good tonic for the altered son of Somebeachsomewhere and Tricky Tooshie, who won over $1M on the racetrack. The Major marched to the lead past the ¼, then threw twin 27.4 splits on the end of his mile to complete the handy triumph in 1:51.3 for owner Howard Taylor, defeating four previous Weiss division winners, including second-place YS Lotus, making his sixth start in 18 days (racing in the Sagamore and Weiss three straight weeks).
One other interesting note: both winners sold at Harrisburg as yearlings – Major Uptrend for $177,000, Victory At Last for $7500.