Three $20,270 features for up-and-coming horses were the top races at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Monday afternoon, Sept. 23, with the two trots producing pari-mutuel chaos.

In the featured class for pacers, half the field of eight led at one point or another, but the race boiled down to favoured Stepabovetherest, who brushed to the lead down the backstretch, and second choice Obj, who moved to challenge the new leader uncovered through the last quarter. The pair of Huntsville sophomore fillies fought very hard through the lane; in the end, it was Obj who would work by her tough foe by three-quarters of a length while taking a new mark of 1:52. Matt Kakaley guided the Hunter Oakes trainee for Brian & Ira Wallach Racing. Kakaley and Braxten Boyd each had three wins on the card.

In one of the two featured trots, Roysonsmonigirl rushed away then yielded to Creedmore to sit a pocket trip, then used the Pocono Pike to catch that rival by three parts of a length in 1:56.1, just a tick off her lifetime best recorded four starts ago. Jim Pantaleano steered the International Moni three-year-old filly for trainer/owner Mahlon Martin. 

It wasn’t unforeseeable on paper that Roysonsmonigirl could win this race – it’s just that the toteboard seems to always to take such a beating when she does get the job done. The filly was the previous horse at The Downs to pay a win “bomber” price ($50+) when she returned $94.20 for a deuce on Aug. 26, and on Monday, she exceeded that when she scored at $103.40. Roysonsmonigirl becomes the first local horse this year to twice pay $50+ and trainer Mahlon Martin tied for the top with two longshot winners. Behind the winner were 15-1 Creedmore and 21-1 Absolutely Hanover; the exacta paid $1105.70 for $1 and there was no 50-cent ticket sold on the 3-7-1 winning trio, leading to the disused word “ALL” (in this age of carryovers) in the “3-7-ALL” Trifecta return of $694 (Pennsylvania has no Trifecta carryover rule).

The other top trot was also longshot-saturated as a misty rain was falling (the track was re-rated to “wet-fast” after this race). Heavy favourite Big Ben Pellini S was one of five horses in the field of seven involved in the early action, only to break at the half. Pantaleano/Martin also posted another upset as 23-1 Put Option Hanover parked all challengers, but came up a head shy, as Blinding Lights AS was swung wide by driver George Napolitano Jr. and trotted over her embattled opponents to post a 1:55.4 lifetime mark for trainer Anette Lorentzon and owners ACL Stuteri AB and Kjell Johansson. International Moni-sired sophomore fillies swept the top trots as Blinding Lights AS has now won three of her last four races.

The toteboard got another workout: Blinding Lights AS paid $31.80 to win and the next three across the line were 23-1, 24-1 and 13-1, with a $2,363.40 Trifecta for $2 and another Superfecta carryover. Nobody hit the Pick 4 that began with Roysonsmoneygirl, but with the carryover, this Pick 4 with Blinding Light AS’s race leading and 14-1, 7-1, 5-2 and 9-5 horses combining paid a healthy $1,406.90 for a 50-cent wager from a $15,000+ pool.

The racing week concludes at Pocono Downs on Tuesday, Sept. 24 with a 1 p.m. card. 

(PHHA / Pocono)