Nov 9, 2015 | 50th anniversary of racing, Racing
In the $24,000 co-featured events at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Saturday night, November 7th, both winners used “pocket rocket” tactics to emerge with victories — Extracurricular on the trot and Arthur Blue Chip on the pace.
Extracurricular, a veteran Revenue S gelding owned by Darren Mahoney, had a tougher time making his rally effective — as befits a 10-1 shot trying to catch a 1-5 pacesetting favorite, Somebody As. But Extracurricular dug in for the stretch battle with gameness and edged his frontstepping rival while taking a new mark of 1:52 at age nine for the brother team of driver Simon and trainer Rene Allard.
Arthur Blue Chip was the 11-10 favorite in his event and collared pacesetting Somethinginthewind with a bit more ease, but then the son of Shadow Play had to stay in high gear to withstand the persistent first-over Ontario Success, whose bid for victory came up a half-length shy. Dr. Ian Moore conditions the winner, who was third in his Breeders Crown elimination last month, for the Shadow One Stable.
George Napolitano Jr., the winningest driver in North American harness racing this season, visited Victory Lane five times on the Saturday card at Pocono
to raise his margin over second-place Aaron Merriman to 22, with the score now Napolitano 743, Merriman 721.
“George Nap” will get a chance to add to his margin Sunday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, but then Merriman will compete on four cards — Northfield Sunday night, The Meadows Monday afternoon and Northfield Monday night, and The Meadows Tuesday afternoon — before Napolitano resumes sulky action here Tuesday night, concurrent with Merriman racing at Northfield.
There are two more weeks of racing in the 2015 season here at The Downs, with the trotters and pacers going on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday evenings this week and next, with the final night November 21.
Oct 21, 2015 | 50th anniversary of racing, Racing
The red-hot George Napolitano Jr. broke his own record for most driving victories in one season at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono when he guided Monopoly Blue Chip to victory in the 13th race of the Tuesday night program, his seventh win of the night and more importantly his 348th of the racing season at The Downs, eclipsing his old standard set in 2004.
Napolitano started the night with 341 Pocono wins, and dashed home first in the fourth race, then as good as put his head down and said, “Let’s get this over with” and proceeded to win the 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, and 12th races before setting the record in race 13. And would there be a better-named horse, given his domination of the winners circle earlier, to break the record than Monopoly Blue Chip?
Napolitano will soon be able to post a “magic number” on how many wins he needs to mathematically lock up the title for the Pocono meet, which has 14 cards to go, as at press time he has a 348-210 victory edge over second-place Simon Allard (who got the winner in race 10, between GNap’s consecutive triples). The win crown will be “George Nap”‘s fourth straught at Pocono and ninth all-time, the latter number giving him the all-time outright lead in driving win titles locally, as he and Bill Lambertus both won eight dashwinning crowns prior to this season.
Having posted a possibly-unprecedented 366 wins since July 1, Napolitano has thrust himself in contention for the North American win crown, a title he took in 2010. Aaron Merriman and two-time dash defending champion Ron Wrenn Jr., both based at Northfield presently, had been running 1-2 throughout the season before George came into contention, and a check of the Northfield results for Tuesday at press time had these seasonal totals: Merriman 680, Napolitano 675, Wrenn 654.
One final note: regular Pocono announcer Jim Beviglia, who has called the vast majority of George Nap’s victories here this year, was not available on Tuesday and thus did not call the record win, but he may take some consolation from the person who did: Mike Bozich, announcer at Harrah’s Philadelphia and mikeman for the vast majority of Napolitano’s 301 wins there this season.
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 5, 2015 | Racing
George Napolitano Jr., the leading driver at both The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono and Harrah’s Philadelphia, and who celebrated his 7000th career victory earlier this month, achieved the driving “century mark” for July, posting victory #100 in the final day of the month Friday night at Pocono with the trotter Ras Shaknthtbacon.
Napolitano had 95 victories going into today’s racing, 38 at Philly and 57 at Pocono. George, the 2010 North American dashwinning leader with 753 wins, visited Victory Lane twice in the afternoon at Philly, then recorded his third sulkysitting victory of the mountain oval’s evening with Ras Shakinthatbacon — trained by Gilbert Garcia-Herrera, the leading trainer at Philly and third at Pocono, for whom “GNap” has been principal driver most of the spring and summer.
Napolitano has moved into fourth in this year’s North American standings, with 404 victories. If he maintains his current large lead atop the Pocono dashwinning driver standings, it will be his ninth northeast Pennsylvania title — breaking his current tie with Bill Lambertus as eight-time Pocono champions.
