Nov 15, 2018 | Racing
“The calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise,” Elvis Costello once sang. I’m not sure if he had the harness racing season in mind when he penned that line, but it’s applicable here. After all, the calendar is slowly closing the door on our 2018 campaign at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, which will come to its completion on Saturday night, November 17.
I know I say this every year, but it is hard to believe that we are at the finish of another meet at Pocono. At the start of the season, when it’s March and the weather is just starting to improve, it can seem like the season is going to go on until infinity. Then you look up, there’s ice on the windshield again, and it’s time to shut her down.
Still, it’s impossible to feel too melancholy about the racing season in the rear view at Pocono. After all, it was one for the books, highlighted by the incredible stakes races throughout the year, yet foundationed (yeah, Dylan used that word, so I can too) by the steady excellence of the overnight races. Each and every racing night had at least one memorable, I’ve-never-seen-that-before kind of moment.
For example, I’m thinking about how an overnight horse named Hurricane Beach stunned us all one night with fractions faster than any of the champions who have raced on the Pocono oval have ever been able to manage. Or the occasional 99-1 and beyond shot that would come out of nowhere to score a win and have us scrambling to do the math.
That’s not to say there weren’t performers who were brilliant just about every time they came out on the Pocono track. For instance:
PACER OF THE YEAR: DORSODURO HANOVER
I remember, when this horse came up just short in the Max Hempt Memorial pace due to a speed duel that sapped his closing kick, thinking that he was due for better things. Boy, was he ever. It seemed like he was winning a stakes race every other week at Pocono in 2018. The two big highlights for the Ron Burke trainee driven by Matt Kakaley: A convincing win in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championships for three-year-old colts and then a command performance in the Breeders Crown.
TROTTER OF THE YEAR: HOMICIDE HUNTER
It seems like every year that this Chris Oakes’ trainee comes back, he gets a little better. And he was spectacular to begin with. In a year that saw him break a record that many thought was unbreakable (Sebastian K’s fastest trotting time ever), Old Double H made Pocono his personal stomping grounds. He dominated in the Great Northeastern Open Series throughout the summer, winning the final in a romp. That was just the appetizer for his rallying win in the Breeders Crown, with, fittingly, George Napolitano Jr. in the bike.
CLAIMER OF THE YEAR: IDEAL KISS
There were plenty of horses this year who ran off big winning streaks in the claiming ranks at Pocono, pacers and trotters alike. I chose Ideal Kiss because he managed his success, for the most part, at the absolute top rungs of the claiming ladder. Not to mention the fact that he often succeeded from outside post positions in claiming handicaps and while switching barns practically every week. His consistency in the face of all this was simply stunning.
MARE OF THE YEAR: ECLIPSE ME
Again, a lot of great candidates here, as the distaff divisions were crowded with standout performers. Yet this Rene Allard trainee gets the call for her ability to rise to the occasion time and again against extremely difficult competition. She usually managed her victories coming from off the pace, which certainly adds to the degree of difficulty. It seems like each and every year a Simon Allard/Rene Allard horse wins one of these things, so it’s no surprise to see it happen in 2018.
The driving and training categories are still technically in the wind as we head through the closing nights, but for the most part, it’s in the bag for George Napolitano Jr. (yet again) in terms of driving wins and UDRS and Rene Allard (also yet again in training wins.) Special congratulations go to Hunter Oakes, who appears on his way to a UDRS training title in his first full season as a conditioner. In a community of trainers and drivers as balanced and competitive as the one Pocono possesses, these performers certainly deserve special recognition for coming out on top.
And that should just about do it from here. As always, it has been a privilege to compile these articles for you each week and, of course, to call the races at Pocono. It is a gig that I cherish more with each passing year, and I am eternally grateful for my co-workers who do all the tough stuff so I can sit in my booth and let the action unfold in front of me.
Finally, one more time for 2018, I want to thank the Pocono faithful, the best fans in the sport of harness racing. I hope your off-season is a happy and healthy one, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all again in 2019.
That will do it for this year at Pocono, but we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
Jul 25, 2018 | Racing
July 21-27, 2018
A stalled weather front brought us a lot of rain this past week in Northeastern Pennsylvania, leading to a bunch of sloppy tracks at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. The geese loved it, as evidenced by the one who managed to actually show up in a photo finish with one of the horses on Sunday night. As for the horses, there were some strange occurrences and bizarre outcomes, showing that you never can tell in this sport. Here are the finest performances, as we hand out the Weekly Awards.
PACER OF THE WEEK: HURRICANE BEACH
On Sunday night, it poured rain on and off, leading to an ever-changing track condition that eventually settled on sloppy for the end of the program. In the final race, a $17,000 condition pace for five-year-old and younger winners from three to seven races, Hurricane Beach, a new addition to the Rene Allard barn, was made the 2-1 favorite from post position #8 in a field of nine. Other than expecting it to be a competitive field with some excellent pacers, there wasn’t anything in the ledger to suggest we were in line for something special.
Hurricane Beach, a four-year-old gelding who came into the race with a modest record of two wins in nine races this season, had other ideas. Driver Simon Allard cut him loose, and he scorched the mud to the tune of a :25.1 opening quarter. The ridiculously fast number was eye-popping, but there are many horses that can go wild for a quarter-mile. It was the half-mile time that really left us all slack-jawed, as Hurricane Beach tripped the timer in :51.2, a new world record for the fastest ever half on a 5/8-mile oval. On a sloppy track.
Hurricane Beach kept up his tear to the three-quarter pole, hitting it in 1:19.3. It was only in the stretch that he began to ease up a little, but by then he was well ahead of the rest of the stunned field. His winning time was 1:49.4, a new career-best and the fastest of the week at Pocono, and he defeated the field by 7 ¼ lengths. For those who stuck around for that closing race on that rainy night, they witnessed something special.
Other top pacers include: Big N Bad (George Napolitano Jr., Gareth Dowse), who picked up his second straight claiming handicap win on Saturday night against the highest-priced claimers on the grounds, managing this victory in 1:52.3 in the slop; Attention Hanover (Simon Allard, Steve Salerno), who moved up in class on Sunday night and rallied for his third straight condition win, two of which have come at Pocono with the other at Harrah’s, in 1:54 in the slop; and Rockstar Angel A (Brett Miller, Chris Oakes), an Australian invader who made a striking United States debut at Pocono on Tuesday night, winning the featured condition pace for mares in 1:52.4 in the slop.
TROTTER OF THE WEEK: BOFFIN
As veteran trotters go, there are few around who seem to do damage at Pocono every single year they appear quite like this warrior trained by Anette Lorentzon. Now aged eight, Boffin arrived at Pocono in June in a rare slump, having come up empty in four races in the Midwest. Coming to his old stomping grounds immediately energized him, as he handled an $11,000 condition field on June 18 at Pocono to get his first win of the season.
That win must have given him a taste, because Boffin followed that up with another victory, this time over a $14,000 group in 1:52.4 on June 30. This past Sunday, he was at it again in the rainy conditions, once again moving up in class to face off with a $17,500 class. Even with the step up the ladder, the bettors were wise to the caliber of this gelding and made Boffin a 3-5 favorite leaving from post position #4 in an excellent field of nine.
George Napolitano Jr., who has driven Boffin to many a victory over the years, decided to end the suspense early, as he quickly sent him to the front end. From there, the rest of the field, which was comprised of accomplished trotters, looked like amateurs in his wake. Boffin never really endured any challenge to his supremacy, and he steadily opened up the lead until he came home a 4 ¾-length winner at the end of the mile. His winning time, even in the slop, was a solid 1:54.1, giving him three straight victories.
Honorable mention on the trotting side goes to: Uknow What To Do (Anthony Morgan, Rene Allard), who moved up in class on Saturday night and scored his second straight condition win, this one in 1:56.2 in the slop; Alpha D’Urzy (Simon Allard, Rene Allard), who followed up a win in his U.S. debut at Saratoga with a condition victory at Pocono on Sunday night in 1:57.4 in the off conditions; and Satin Dancer (Matt Kakaley, Travis Alexander), a mare whose win in Sunday night’s featured condition trot in 1:53 matched a career-best and represented the fastest trotting mile of the week at Pocono.
LONG SHOT OF THE WEEK: CASINO DIRECTOR
This pacer driven by Tyler Buter sent the folks home shocked with a condition win in the finale on Monday night at 36-1, paying off $74 on a $2 win ticket.
DRIVER OF THE WEEK: MATT KAKALEY
One of the most consistent performers at Pocono on a regular basis, Kakaley did his usual damage this week, picking up six combined wins in three nights of racing.
TRAINER OF THE WEEK: GARETH DOWSE
There has been no hotter barn on the grounds for the past month or so, and Dowse solidified that hot streak with three more training wins this week.
That will do it for this week at Pocono, but we’ll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected].
