Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania will start off its 2026 season with a 1 p.m. program on Saturday, Feb. 14.

There is a $27,500 USD fast-class feature for seasoned veterans on both gaits. The sixth race trot is a handicap affair, with the two outermost starters in the field of seven showing a victory on their top lines. The Brodster, starting from the far outside for trainer Per Engblom, will be going for his fifth straight victory while his stablemate, Ultion Face S, a wire-to-wire winner at Yonkers Raceway last Thursday, will start just to his inside. It will be interesting to see which horse Jason Bartlett, named on both and another starter in the race, will be handling.

Engblom also has a pair in the $27,500 USD pacing headliner in race 10. Pinny Tiger A had won five straight starts before ending his 2025 with a head defeat at the hands of Lou Hill – the other Engblom trainee, and away from the races since that Dec. 27 triumph. Pinny Tiger A opened his 2026 campaign with a rallying Open win in 1:50.4 at The Meadows on Jan. 31, and will start from post three in this seven-horse field, with Lou Hill beginning from the five slot.

The inaugural card will also feature five $15,000 USD divisions of the first preliminary leg of the popular Game Of Claims Pacing Series, with the fields in for a base tag of $25,000 USD this week. Brandon Presto, the leading trainer at The Meadows, will load up a truck with six Game Of Claims Series horses for an eastern invasion, and the sextet show 11 wins among their past performance lines. Paul Blumenfeld, Cory Stratton and Darren Taneyhill will have starters from their respective barns in four of the five divisions of the series, which culminates in a $35,000 USD championship on Saturday, March 7.

Tuesday was the second consecutive day that Pocono hosted qualifying races for horses prepping for this campaign; weekly qualifiers will shift to Wednesday after this week. On Tuesday, with the temperatures just below zero degrees Celsius during the session, there were three sub-1:55 times turned in, the fastest of 1:54.2 turned in by Richard Johnson trainee Expedited Service, one of four winners George Napolitano Jr. drove. Mindtrip (1:54.3) and Dandys Mercy (1:54.4) clocked the other swift clockings. On the trot, trainer Jill Roland had the fastest two winners, Te Amo Lindy (1:57.2) and Robbie Pev (1:57.4). Both Monday’s and Tuesday’s qualifiers are viewable on the PHHA website at phha.org.

Pocono will draw on Wednesday, Feb. 11 for 1 p.m. racing on Monday, Feb. 16 and on Thursday, Feb. 12 for racing on Tuesday, Feb. 17; the box for the pari-mutuel cards closes at 9 a.m. After that, the pari-mutuel draws will revert to their normal schedule: draw Monday for Saturday, draw Tuesday for Monday, and draw Wednesday for Tuesday.

(With files from PHHA/Pocono)