Hall of Fame horseman Brian Sears, driving in a purse race for the first time in 32 months, was victorious with Celebrity Hunter in a $22,535 two-year-old male trot on Tuesday, July 21 at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.

After the race, Sears could be forgiven for thinking, “That was a lot easier than I remember driving harness horses to be.” As will happen with baby trotters, several competitors broke, and as Sears gained uncovered from third late on the far turn with the Captain Corey–Are You Ready colt, first the pocket-sitter and then the pacesetter lost gait. What was a half length advantage at the stretch call turned into a 12-length victory in 1:56.4. The win was the first in four starts for Celebrity Hunter ($3) and number 10,425 in Sears’s career.

Sears came to Pocono to drive for trainer Hunter Oakes, from whom the winner gets the second part of his name; the first part comes from the fact that Celebrity Farms is the co-owner with Flying A Racing Stable and Robert Becker. The victory came over a sloppy track after a brief mid-card break for a passing heavy thundershower.

With regular pilots Tyler Buter and Matt Kakaley driving at Yonkers Raceway on Tuesday night, Sears made himself available in a catch-driving pinch-hit appearance for Oakes. Sears currently owns a piece of Papis Bride, a two-year-old conditioned by Oakes, but he told Trot Insider on Monday that he's not planning any sort of full-time return to catch driving.

Celebrity Hunter won the faster of two divisions for his classification; there were also two events for the same gait and opposite sex, and one fllly, Dont Stop Hanover ($2.60), went a fifth faster than her colt counterpart while taking a new mark. Travelling approximately the same route as Celebrity Hunter, Dont Stop Hanover had a harder task in the stretch, but she was able to catch pacesetter Im A Hugger (Anthony Napolitano) by a neck in 1:56.3 while going her last split in :28.4 (in the last race before the track went from fast to sloppy). The daughter of Greenshoe-Dont Wait Up, now two-for-two, was driven by Dexter Dunn for trainer Marcus Melander and the ownership of Frederick Schwartz, Onda Racing Stable LLC and Richard Pronti.

The only freshman pace of the day, for colts and geldings, went to the Captaintreacherous-Marinade Hanover colt The Tile Guy ($9.80), who caught leader Hascalovici (Dunn) by a head while taking a maiden mark of 1:54 in the slop. Braxten Boyd had the steer behind the Polie Mallar-trained colt, now one-for-two lifetime, for Richard Hernandez and John Moderack.

Trainer Lily Cimino harnessed her first lifetime winner on the card as she sent out Bella Cavalla in the 13th race. The seven-year-old Dover Dan-Ciao Bela mare, in her fifth start since leaving Ontario, got away third, brushed to the lead going down the back, and held off two challenges in the lane for a neck victory in 1:55. Kevin Wallis steered the mare for owners Michael Sergi and David Phillips.

Bella Cavalla ($5.20) went behind the gate for Cimino for the second time after finishing second and being placed sixth in her debut for the trainer last week. Cimino recorded her first training start in June with Peter Poole at Pocono and has collected cheques in nine of her 15 starts so far. The Pennsylvania native now has a 1-2-1 record and $23,141 in purse earnings.

The only multi-winners on the day were Boyd, who got home first four times, and Dunn, who tallied twice on the 13-race card. 

Racing resumes at Pocono on Saturday at 1 p.m., with the $29,500 USD Winners Over Pace featuring millionaires Ken Hanover, Voukefalas, and Ruthless Hanover. Sunday’s 5 p.m. twilight card will be the last Sunday program of the season at Pocono; it features the inaugural $75,000 USD Mohegan Cup for free-for-all pacing mares, which has a field with $4.8 million USD in combined lifetime earnings topped by Louies Girl N, Unreasonable, and The Last Martini.

(With files from PHHA/Pocono)