Sep 29, 2015 | 50th anniversary of racing, Racing
September 18-24, 2015
Lest anyone think that the racing action at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono has slowed up a bit as summer makes its transition into fall, this past week’s excitement should definitively put that theory to rest. Four nights of action produced times as quick as any we witnessed in the heart of summer. We even had a world record performance to really push this week over the edge. That performance, needless to say, kicks off our Weekly Awards.
TROTTER OF THE WEEK: DAYLON MIRACLE
In the $30,000 Open Handicap trot on Saturday night, Wind Of The North was assigned the outside post in the nine-horse field, meaning that he conceivably should have been the one that stood a notch above the rest of the field. But it was the mare Daylon Miracle who went off as the even-money favorite from post position #7.
Maybe the betting faithful saw a horse on top of her game after a close 3rd in a $100,000 race at Pocono and a sharp condition win at Yonkers in her previous two starts. Or maybe they realized that her human companions, trainer Rene Allard and driver Simon Allard, were in the midst of a monster night. In any case, Daylon Miracle rewarded the bettor’s faith, taking the lead on the front stretch and trotting away to hide.
She kicked away from her pursuit to cross the line 7 ½ lengths in front of the best trotters on the grounds. The winning time of 1:50:3 revealed just why Daylon Miracle was so far out in front, as it broke the world record for aged trotting mares on a 5/8-mile oval. Only Sebastian K and Father Patrick, two all-time greats, have ever trotted faster at Pocono than what Daylon Miracle achieved on Saturday night.
Other top trotters this week include: Extracurricular (Simon Allard, Rene Allard) whose victory in Tuesday night’s featured condition trot was his second straight and came in a career-best 1:53; Racer X (George Napolitano Jr., Chris Oakes), who now has three straight wins, two of which were at Pocono, following a victory Friday night in a career best 1:53:3; and Cantabs Fortune (George Napolitano Jr., Kevin Carr), a mare who moved up in class on Tuesday night to score her second straight condition win, this one coming in 1:55.
PACER OF THE WEEK: BUGGER BRUISER
This four-year-old gelding from the barn of trainer of Carmen Auciello has spent his time in 2015 bouncing back and forth amidst Pennsylvania, New York and Canada. In his previous start before going toe-to-toe with a $13,000 condition group at Pocono on Saturday night, he overcame an outside post to win at Tioga by a neck in 1:52:1.
Although that winning time might have seemed modest next to some of the speedsters in Saturday night’s race, Bugger Bruiser also had a 1:49:1 win at Mohawk to his credit in 2015. He needed that speed early to find the pocket seat behind Mustang Art, a classy Pocono veteran who made the front end and tried to scare off the rest of the field by setting intimidating fractions.
Those fractions didn’t frighten Bugger Bruiser, who stayed close behind Mustang Art as the leader dealt with pressure on the outside. At the top of the stretch, driver Simon Allard tipped Bugger Bruiser to the outside and the gelding pounced, blowing by the pacesetter to win by two lengths in a sizzling 1:50. With two straight wins, this precocious pacer appears ready to step up and take on even tougher foes, no matter where he races next.
Honorable mention on the pacing side goes to: Dynamic Youth (Joe Bongiorno, Ron Burke), who battled to a win in Saturday night’s $30,000 Open Handicap pace in 1:49, the fastest pacing time of the week; Artistic Major (Eric Goodell, Steve Elliott), a 3-year-old colt who beat some tough older horses in a condition on Saturday night in a career-best 1:49:4; and Frost Damage Blues (Mike Simons, Tom Fanning), a three-year-old filly who, after winning five straight races in New York to start her career, handled a condition field at Pocono on Wednesday night in a career-best 1:51:1 to stay perfect.
LONG SHOT OF THE WEEK: CULINARY DELIGHT
At 36-1, this filly wasn’t given much of a chance on Tuesday night, but she upset a condition trotting field with Marcus Miller in the bike to pay out $74.80 on a $2 win ticket.
DRIVER OF THE WEEK: SIMON ALLARD
As if five wins on Friday night weren’t enough, he came right back to dominate the proceedings with eight wins on Saturday night, a personal best for him here at Pocono.
TRAINER OF THE WEEK: RENE ALLARD
After notching four training wins on both Friday and Saturday night, the meet’s leading trainer now has twice as many wins in 2015 as his nearest competitor in the Pocono training standings.
That will do it for this week, but we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
Sep 5, 2012 | Racing
August 31-September 6, 2012
We’re going to put the Weekly Awards on hiatus this week, because I’d like to devote all of the space I have in this column to the thrilling action that took place last Saturday on Pennsylvania Championship night. With four Pennsylvania Sire Stakes races, each with a purse of $200,000 up for grabs, you can bet the action was frenzied, furious, and fast. Very, very fast.
For those of you who might be unaware of how it works, two and three-year-old horses compete all summer long in tracks across the state, amassing points based on their performances in the Sire Stakes preliminary legs. Those horses with the highest point totals them move on the big-money finals, where they get a chance to take home the winner’s share of the huge purse and claim bragging rights as best in the state.
On Saturday night, we at Pocono were honored to host the three-year-old finals, and each one of the four races was memorable in its way, either for a standout performance or a thrilling conclusion.
The action started out with the trotting fillies, where one of the sport’s true superstars had a chance to strut her stuff. Check Me Out, trained by Ray Schnittker, headed into Saturday night’s final with a gaudy record of 22 wins in 26 career races and over $1.63 million dollars in her bank account. Schnittker did the driving as well and had one mission: Send his filly to the front and let her roll.
The result was one of the most mesmerizing performances in Pocono history. Check Me Out powered to the front on the first turn and stayed there all the way home to win by 1 ¼ lengths in 1:51:3. Not only did that race set a track record, it set a world record for a 3-year-old trotting filly on any size track. Considering Pocono is a three turn track and other longer-distance tracks require only two turns, that is an accomplishment that is almost beyond comprehension.
If Check Me Out warmed things up, Economy Terror set the track ablaze in the pacing fillies class. Then again, it shouldn’t have surprised us that this powerhouse from the Chris Oakes barn would be ready to perform on Pennsylvania Championship night. Last year at this time, she came home a winner in the 2-year-old pacing fillies class in world record fashion shortly before she won the Breeders Crown in her division.
With that kind of history, driver Dave Palone knew that he needed just to get the filly to the lead and then let her do the rest. After setting scorching fractions to the top of the stretch, Economy Terror kicked away from her foes to a romping five-length victory over some of the best fillies in the country. The winning time of 1:49 was, you guessed it, a new world record for any 3-year-old filly on a 5/8-mile oval. Now that’s how you defend a title.
The male half of the championship races didn’t produce any world records, but they did produce great finishes and deserving winners. In the 3-year-old trotting colts and geldings division, My MVP was the even-money favorite, and driver Mike LaChance drove him like one by sending him to the front. Yet it wasn’t an easy lead, as he had to work hard to clear and then faced a first-over challenge from Solvato.
Watching it all from the pocket was Magic Tonight, a colt from the Noel Daley barn. The patience of driver Eric Goodell paid off, as Magic Tonight got his chance in the stretch and snuck past the tiring favorite for the victory by a half-length in 1:54.
All that was left was the 3-year-old pacing colts and geldings, and Sweet Lou had the racing history that suggested that he would defend his title much like Economy Terror did earlier in the night. Dapper Dude had some other ideas. The colt from the Bob McIntosh barn had been performing pretty well himself in the 2012 season, and he raced unafraid against the heavy favorite.
Give credit to driver Jim Morrill Jr., who did some nifty weaving in and out of traffic to get Dapper Dude perched right behind Sweet Lou at the top of the stretch. From there, it was no contest, as Dapper Dude blew by to win going away by 3 ½ lengths in 1:49.
It was a fitting end to a great night of harness racing at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, and yet another example of why nothing tops the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes in terms of racing excitement.
That will do it for this week, but we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
Sep 1, 2012 | Racing
WILKES-BARRE PA — Check Me Out obliterated the world record for 3YO trotting fillies on a 5/8-mile track when she cruised to a 1:51.3 victory in her $200,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship Saturday night at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, the highlight of Championship Night for the state-sired sophomores.
The daughter of Donato Hanover reached the lead nearing the 1/4 from post six for trainer/driver Ray Schnittker and put up splits of 27.3, 55.2, and 1:23 while looking comfortable and confident. Superstar Hanover maintained valiant contact from the pocket, and Maven started her patented grind at the 5/8, but neither could approach the winner of $2.7 million, with the final clocking breaking the world record shared by Hidden Viggorish (in a PaSS final) and Holier Than Thou (set at Pocono earlier this year) by an amazing 1 3/5 seconds. Maven was up for second late over Superstar Hanover.
“She was good at the gate, and once we made the top I was very confident,” noted Schnittker, co-owner with Charles Iannazzo, after the race. “Very strong throughout,” he continued, adding that her next start would be at Lexington.
The Western Terror filly Economy Terror set a world record in winning her pacing fillies Championship last year, held at Pocono, and the return to “home cookin’” (trainer Chris Oakes is based at the mountain track) provided “déjà vu all over again” – another world record, this time in 1:49, a tick better than place finisher’s Big McDeal’s seven-week-old mark, and the fastest PA Sire Stakes Championship ever (spoiler alert: tied by Dapper Dude two races later.)
After a contentious 25.4 opener, “Super Sire Stakes Finals driver” Dave Palone (he’s won 25 the last 10+ years; his nearest competitor has 7) guided his filly to the command position, and later spoke of the middle splits of 54 and 1:21.3 as “actually a good breather for her.” The afterburners kicked in approaching headstretch, however, as Economy Terror opened wide daylight to become only the fifth 2YO-3YO Sire Stakes “repeater” in modern times (all fillies, and all but one pacers). Chuck Pompey, Howard Taylor, and Ed Gold saw their 2011 divisional champion surpass $1.2 million in earnings.
Dapper Dude, just a half-length off in the North America Cup, easily caught defending champion Sweet Lou in the stretch while taking the colt pace in 1:49 – a personal mark, and equaling the newly-minted mark of Economy Terror as the quickest in Sire Stakes Championship history.
Sweet Lou got to the half in a mild 55, but then was forced to pace a 26.1 backside to keep out first-over Easy Again – a speed which allowed driver Jim Morrill Jr. to drop the second-over “Dude” into a gaping pocket nearing the 3/4. With the breather around the turn, Dapper Dude easily picked up Sweet Lou late, with DD’s earnings now over $550,000 for trainer Bob McIntosh, co-owner with Al McIntosh Holdings Inc.
An alert drive by Eric Goodell was the key to the victory of Magic Tonight as the Andover Hall colt notched the other trotting event in 1:54, a stakes record. Goodell left for the top and yielded, then made another move when he saw favored My MVP forward-bound and yielded for the 2-hole behind the chalk. The Pocono Pike then provided the passage to victory for Magic Tonight, a tough second to Hambo winner Market Share at Vernon last week, as he pushed his earnings over $430,000 for trainer Noel Daley and owner Adam Victor & Son LLC. Magic Tonight was also the only outright preliminary pointleader to take a Championship (Economy Terror was co-leader in her section).
