Aug 10, 2015 | Racing
Pure Country put an exclamation point on trainer Jimmy Takter’s Hambletonian/Oaks-winning weekend as she remained undefeated with the easiest of 1:53.2 victories in one of four divisions of the $253,980 third preliminary leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes for two-year-old pacing fillies on Sunday, August 9th, at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
The fabulous filly by Somebeachsomewhere out of Western Montana was directed to the front early by Brett Miller, reaching that station in 28 and then getting a walk to the park with a 58 half. Up came Shesasmokinlady on a big first-over move, and out came the earplugs as Pure Country got to the 3/4 in 1:26, and she then finished in 27.2 under a stretchlong hold by Miller in winning by 2 1/4 lengths. Heelsonthebeach, who had sat second behind the winner through much of the mile but was past by Shesasmokinlady nearing the 3/4, came back in the lane for second, with Shesasmokinlady settling for third.
Pure Country is the only filly to have won in each of the first three Sire Stakes legs, and she is 4-for-4 in purse competition, having started her career here with a PA All-Stars win. She was bred and is owned by Diamond Creek.
Fastest of the four miles was the 1:52.1 hung up by Yankee Moonshine (Yankee Cruiser-Bootleg Yankee), moved early to command by driver Matt Kakaley and then holding off the late charge of Princess Fabulosa by 3/4 of a length while taking a new mark. Ron Burke trains the fast baby for the ownership of Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi, Lawrence Karr, and JT45.
In this victory, Yankee Moonshine was the only non-previous Sires winner to tally (she was 2-3 in her earlier prelims), and she was the only winner to have raced for a purse since the July 17 Meadows Sires leg, having won an Arden Downs event on Adios Day. She was the 6-5 second choice behind 4-5 chalk Ivy League (Somebeachsomewhere – See You At Peelers), who was in perfect second-over position when she lost her momentum in the final turn and finished back.
The Well Said-Silkandidamonds filly I Said Diamonds moved to second-place in the divisional pointstandings behind Pure Country by becoming a “pocket rocket” under the handling of David Miller and earning a new speed badge of 1:52.3. The winner now has two triumphs and a second in the Sire Stakes, with Paul Holzman doing the conditioning for owner Omar Beiler, Susan Oakes, and Dennis Coons.
Another two-time Sires winner, and giving Somebeachsomewhere a siring double, is Call Me Queen Be, out of the mare Preppy Party Girl, who also came out of the two-hole, just nipping pacesetting Shezarealideal by a head in 1:52.4. Scott Zeron handled sulky duty for trainer Ross Croghan and owners Dana Parham and the Let It Ride Stables Inc.
Jul 21, 2015 | Racing
Somebeachsomewhere, newly-installed into the Living Harness Horse Hall of Fame, sired three of the five winners in the $268,940 first round of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes for two-year-old pacing colts Wednesday night, July 15th, at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
The trio of winners by the great horse included two Ron Burke trainees: Check Six (out of Southwind Vanna), who quarter-moved to the top then snapped home in 55.4 – 27.3 to tally in 1:53.4 for driver Matt Kakaley and owners Burke Racing, Weaver Bruscemi, William Switala and James Martin, along with 3 Brothers Stables’ JK Will Power (whose dam is Whats New Pussycat), who paced an individual last quarter of 27.1 to be a 1:54.2 “pocket rocket” for pilot Yannick Gingras.
The other SBSW winner was Canadian invader Carter Beach (dam: Flaming Diablo), who was in the “feature division” which contained three of the five Pennsylvania All-Star winners earlier this month. But in his first start “south of the border,” Carter Beach showed his mettle by grinding uncovered in a 56.1 last half to post a neck triumph for driver Jody Jamieson and trainer/father Carl, the latter co-owner with Thomas Kyron and George Harrison.
Neither the fastest winner or the longest-priced winner was a son of “Somebeach,” however. Speed honors went in the opening division to the Western Ideal-Stolly Up Bluechip colt Spider Man Hanover, who produced a superhero-like 27.1 brush to the lead in the third quarter to win in 1:52.1 for driver David Miller, trainer Brian Brown, and owners Country Club Acres, Kenneth Vauper, Mike Mallett, and Milton Leeman.
50-1 shot Whata Twist, last and gapping at the half, and then shoved four-wide late on the far turn due to chain-reaction interference, still managed to rally in the final strides for a 1:53 triumph. The Quik Pulse Mindale-Passage colt, driven by Brett Miller for trainer Chris Ryder, co-owner with Diamond Creek Racing, lived up to his name by producing a $107 return for a $2 win investment to his scattered backers.
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 6, 2015 | Racing
Walk The Walk, a son of former Horse of the Year Muscle Hill, emerged as the only horse competing in Bobby Weiss Series action to take a second straight win in the $15,000 Tuesday, March 31st, preliminaries, two for trotting males and two for pacing females, at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Last week’s first round trotting male winners, Walk The Walk and Two Hip Dip, were matched in one division, and Walk The Walk maintained his perfect record in the series by winning Tuesday in 1:55.2 on a cold night and a sloppy racetrack. Last week Walk The Walk was well in front when he made a break nearing the wire, so in the interim trainer Chris Ryder qualified him with trotting hopples, and this week Walk The Walk was errorless, making an early move to command and then stepping home in 57 to defeat Raise The Curtain, with Two Hip Dip, the slight second choice as last week’s winners were both sent off at 11-10, third after a first-over trip. David Miller, who drove both winners last week, stayed with Walk The Walk, and the horse repaid that confidence of Miller in tallying for the ownership of Ruder, Sidney Korn, Robert Mondillo, and Max Wernick.
Bourbon Bay, third last week in snapping a six-race win skein, bounced back to winning ways, going a tick faster than the other trotting cut in winning by open lengths. The Sand Vic gelding is trained by Megan Wilson for driver/owner John Cummings Jr.
Thebeachnextdoor put paid to the hopes of a repeat Weiss win for Life Is A Beach and Crescent City, both nose victresses last week, by taking a personal mark of 1:53.4 in one leg of the female pacing competition. Jim Morrill Jr., behind hid fourth winner of the night, guided the daughter of Somebeachsomewhere, like Muscle Hill a former Horse of the Year and who was nosed out in the first round, to a wire-to-wire triumph, with last week’s winners finishing 2-3 respectively. The Brewer Adams-trained mare is owned by Adams Racing LLC and Brian Clark.
Allthatjazz De Vie couldn’t be a repeat winner because Tuesday’s other division for females was her first start of the year, but she won her Weiss debut by personally coming home in 56.3 to win in 1:54.4 over Hollyrocker (the other distaff to be nosed in the first round). Andrew McCarthy sulkysat behind the sophomore daughter of American Ideal, now 5 for 7 lifetime, for the familiar pairing of trainer Ron Burke and the ownership combine of Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi.
Mar 30, 2015 | Racing
The Quik Pulse Mindale gelding Victory At Last became the first two-time winner in his section of the Bobby Weiss Series for late-developing pacing males, winning one of the three $15,000 second round Weiss events Saturday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Last week Victory At Last led at every call and lasted over the late charge of a Rene Allard-trained horse, YS Lotus, by a head; this week the winner sat the pocket behind another Allard trainee, Vance Bayama, and rallied in the Pocono Pike to win in 1:54.2, last quarter 27.3, with the victory margin a head this week as well. Matt Kakaley again handled Victory At Last for trainer Ron Burke and the powerful combine of Burke Racing and Weaver Bruscemi.
Rene Allard, the leading trainer at Pocono last year, sent out the fastest winner in the two rounds of competition when YS Lotus, mentioned above, made a sweeping move around tired foes to the 3/4s and won by five lengths in a personal best 1:52 (on a 26 degree night). Rene’s brother Simon was in the sulky behind the altered son of If I Can Dream, an “iron horse” racing for the fourth time in 11 days, for owner Yves Sarrazin.
Both Victory At Last and YS Lotus were the crowd choices; such was not the case in the third Weiss event, as 13-1 shot Weapons Dealer angled wide in the stretch and caught Shadow Margeaux, a $77 win bomber last week, by a neck, taking a new speed badge of 1:54.1. Anthony Napolitano handled sulky duties behind the Western Ideal gelding for trainer Daniel Renaud and owner Robert Di Mozzi.
