October 5-11, 2019
One of the fun things about the racing action at The Downs at Mohegan Sun is how, year after year, we see a lot of the same horses coming back to perform well. That allows the fans to develop a relationship with these performers over time, a relationship that can really intensify with horses that race effectively to the point where they approach 10 or so years old. Case in point: the horse who leads off the Weekly Awards this week and has been doing damage at Pocono for ...
September 28 to October 4, 2019
October is upon us, which means that we have only about a month-and-a-half left of live racing in the 2019 season at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. The lingering warm weather has helped to keep the action lightning-quick, however. As a matter of fact, we witnessed several sub-1:50 miles on Saturday night. It was another difficult week to narrow down the Weekly Awards candidates, but we gave it a shot anyway.
PACER OF THE WEEK: WESTERN JOE
Technically, the feature ...
May 28-June 4, 2016
It’s been a while since we’ve handed out the Weekly Awards in this column. We hit a stretch the past month or so at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono where it seemed like every week featured a different set of stakes races, which obviously needed to be highlighted. This week the stakes races took a breather, allowing our excellent condition and claiming pacers and trotters to take center stage. And, with warm temperatures hitting the track, plenty of candidates stepped ...
October 9-15, 2015
After the last vestiges of summer flickered across the Northeastern Pennsylvania landscape early last week, more typical autumnal weather started to move in at the end of the racing week. Regardless of the weather, cold or hot, sloppy or clear, you can always count on racing at The Downs at Mohegan Sun to be of the highest caliber, and this week was no different. To prove it, let’s hand out some Weekly Awards.
PACER OF THE WEEK: FANCY DESIRE
It’s never ...
Driver George Napolitano Jr. and trainer Chris Oakes combined for a sweep of the pacing features Saturday night, October 1oth, at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, with Scott Rocks a pocket rocket in taking the $26,000 pace in 1:50.1 and Luck Be Withyou controlling the pace to report home first in 1:49.1 in a $24,000 event.
Napolitano left hard with Scott Rocks, an altered son of Rocknroll Hanover, forcing a pocket tuck from Lonewolf Currier, then surrendering the front to the brushing ...
July 17-23, 2015
Now that we’re in the heart of the 2015 racing season at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, the schedule provides five nights of racing each week. That means that it’s harder than ever to choose who’s deserving of the Weekly Awards, because there are even more candidates from which to select. But we’re going to take a deep dive anyway and come up with the best of the best from the week that was at Pocono.
PACER OF THE WEEK: CAUTION SIGNS
It’s been a lot ...
George Napolitano Jr., solidifying his leader atop the drivers standings at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, took both $25,000 features this Saturday night, with pacer Bandolito and trotter Frau Blucher justifying their odds-on status by scoring over a track rerated to “sloppy” after midcard rains.
Bandolito was moved to the front by “George Nap” after the 26.4 opener in his contest, put up a midway split of 54.1, and saw first-over Scott Rocks coming to him towards the 1:21.1 3/4s. ...
The Napolitano brothers accounted for the sulky success in the $22,000 twin features Saturday nigh, May 23, t at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, with Anthony taking the trot with Swishnflick in 1:54 and then George winning the pace with Scott Rocks in 1:50.1.
The Kadabra mare Swishnflick was sent right to the top in the trotting headliner, putting down fractions of 28.1, 57.4, and 1:26 for “Ant’ny Nap.” There turned out to be only one stretch challenger for Swishnflick – the pocketsitter ...
July 11-17, 2014
We are coming out of a particularly busy stretch of stakes races at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, and, as those races dominated the conversation, it necessitated the Weekly Awards taking a bit of a hiatus for the past three weeks. The good news is that the Awards are back, and there is a pile of worthy candidates lining up to ...
