Pinny Tiger A improved to two-for-two on the season as the sharp gelding prevailed in the co-featured $37,671 Winners Over Pace, topping a training triple for Per Engblom on opening day at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Saturday, Feb. 14.

Engblom trainees made up the top two throughout the featured pace, with heavy favourite Pinny Tiger A on the lead coming into the lane and 8-1 shot Lou Hill (Simon Allard) – who had defeated Pinny Tiger A at The Meadowlands in his last race at the end of 2025 – enjoying the golden chair. But Pinny Tiger A, who made two moves early through :27.4 and :56 fractions to control the tempo through three-quarters in 1:23.3, was equal to the challenge, powering home in :26.4 to reduce his mark to 1:50.2. Lou Hill was second by 1-1/2 lengths, followed by Catalpa Rescue A (Colin Kelly). Jason Bartlett was in the sulky for the winner, who doubled his 2026 tally after a sharp 1:50.4 win at The Meadows in his seasonal bow. The nine-year-old Mach Three-Tigress Franco gelding upped his Stateside record to 9-7-2-0 for Engblom and Elite Harness Racing LLC and is now 27-for-68 lifetime. He paid $2.20 to win.

The victory split Engblom's two other wins, which came with Clear For Landing ($3) and Trump The Warrior ($9.20). The conditioner, coming off a career-best campaign, is 40-for-147 this year.

Two weeks ago at The Meadowlands, Resolve To Win was third at 5-2 in the same race as Ultion Face S, who was fourth at 51-1; last week, Resolve To Win faded late at the Meadows, while Ultion Face S went wire-to-wire at Yonkers. In Pocono’s co-featured $37,671 Winners Over Handicap Trot on Saturday, Resolve To Win's faithful got a nice 5-1 price on the six-year-old Resolve-Sensual Hall gelding. He sat on the back of 1-5 chalk Ultion Face S (Jason Bartlett) in fractions of :27, :56, and 1:24.3, then moved at headstretch and trotted away by 4-1/2 lengths in 1:53.1. Kinnder Thinktwice (Ridge Warren) took second over Stormont Divide (Jordan Stratton). Brett Beckwith handled the winner, who has tallied 26 wins in 90 career outings, for trainer Enrico Robinson and owner Pollack Racing LLC. The win price was $12.60.

Trainer Brandon Presto, the top trainer at The Meadows, matched Engblom's haul with a trio of winners in the $20,548 first round preliminaries of the Game of Claims series. He loaded a trailer with six horses to compete in the event, which carried five divisions in round one, for horses base-tagged at $34,247. He will head back westward with none of the three winners, as the trio were part of the nine horses that changed hands for a combined $308,219 in this hectic claiming series. 

The three Presto horses, all driven by George Napolitano Jr. for owner Rocco Stebbins, won the three fastest divisions. The quickest time was the 1:51.3 posted by the Captaintreacherous-Wicked Little Minx gelding Ilderton Am ($8.40), who caught pacesetter Supplemental Fee (Ridge Warren) by a nose a week after joining the Stebbins/Presto operation. The Custard The Dragon-Fie Foe Fire gelding Rum N Raisins ($3.80) posted a new mark of 1:51.4 in his section, while the Sweet Lou-Somesleazetoplease gelding Do Mischief ($7.40) succeeded in 1:52. Presto, after setting new marks in wins and earnings last year, has recorded 35 victories in 125 starts this season, a 28 per cent strike rate. 

Also winning and then having to change barns was Dontlikeitleave ($3), an altered son of A Rocknroll Dance-Presidential Lady who nipped Whiskey Breath (Simon Allard) by the slimmest of margins in 1:52.2 for Team Stratton — driver Jordan and trainer Cory — and owner Caldwell Mamie Racing LLC. Getting the luxury of returning to “familiar surroundings” was the Check Six-A Plus gelding Six Again ($13.20), a 1:52.2 winner for driver Matt Kakaley and owner Stacey Currie; “familiar surroundings” is a relative term here, as Six Again had just come to trainer Crit Walsh before this race.

Bartlett, who will be picking up his 2025 U.S. Driver of the Year trophy in Florida next weekend, had four winners in all on the 13-race card, three for Per Engblom. George Napolitano Jr. and Brandon Presto had their triples as noted, and driver Brett Beckwith had a trio of winner's circle visits as well, two via Joe Bongiorno trainees.

Pocono opens the season with the basic schedule it will follow almost the entire year – racing on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at 1 p.m. – and the next card on Monday will have a $15,500 USD pace for developing horses.

(With files from PHHA/Pocono)