The longest shot on the board in her first lifetime start, Abbess won the fastest of three $40,541 closely contested divisions of a Pennsylvania All-Stars event for two-year-old trotting fillies on Tuesday afternoon, July 8 at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.

A daughter of Father Patrick-Dew Can Dew who showed only a second in a qualifying line for trainer Chase Vandervort, Abbess was kept near the back of the field as several of the favourites argued fractions of :28.2, :58.4 and 1:27.2. The light bulb went on for Abbess around the far turn, as she completed a personal :57 last half and closed from fifth at the stretch call to garner a 1:56.4 neck victory over Contrition (Tyler Buter), who photoed Litt Up for place (Corey Callahan). The remainder of Abbess’s connections are not ones you would associate with 25-1 odds but would with stakes success: driver Tim Tetrick and owners Arden Homestead Stable.

After winning a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes event in her last start, the Bar Hopping-Perfect Chance miss Ginger Tree Lex added another stakes credit to her burgeoning resume with a defeat of a game Lainey W (Ridge Warren) by a nose. After fractions of :29.4 and 1:00.2, Ginger Tree Lex went first-over with a :27.3 brush that put her past Lainey W on the lead at the 1:28.2 three-quarters. But the former leader was not finished and narrowed back in gamely, with Ginger Tree Lex proving just a nose more photogenic in 1:57.1, equalling her lifetime mark. Matt Kakaley was the driver for trainer Steve Cook and owners Sam Beegle, Ginger Tree Ventures, Knollview Stable 2 and Robert Reber Jr.

The Greenshoe-Tricky Sister filly Shoestrings, third in a Sire Stakes event in her purse debut, had the “easiest” All-Stars victory, by three parts of a length over French Echo (Tyler Miller) in a new mark of 1:57. The latter sat in the pocket as Shoestrings set splits of :29, :59.1 and 1:28.4, then closed a little into a :28.1 last quarter, but not enough to defeat Shoestrings, who was driven by Jim Marohn Jr. for trainer/owner D. R. Ackerman.

Though he won no stakes events, trainer/driver Åke Svanstedt drove three horses from his barn to victory, by a combined 17-3/4 lengths, to lead the Pocono horsepeople in both categories on Tuesday.

Racing resumes at Pocono on Saturday at 1 p.m., and an instant possible bonanza awaits fans – there will be carryover into the first race Superfecta. 

(With files from PHHA/Pocono; photo of Abbess winning on July 8 at Pocono Downs)