The $600,000 Bobby Weiss Series of early-closers for developing three and four-year-old Standardbreds, with an event for each combination of gait and sex, begins this Sunday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

This is also the track’s first card of the year on a Sunday, and that day’s racing will carry a special post time of 7:30 p.m. in 2016.

Named for the retired Pocono trackman renowned for his honing of the red clay track into one of the world’s outstanding racing surfaces, the Weiss Series races saw a small change in their basic conditions for this year, from “non-winners of three races or $40,000 as of January 1” to “non-winners of two races or $20,000 as of January 1.”

“We made that change for two reasons,” said Pocono Director of Racing Rick Kane. “One was to attract more nominations to the races, and we achieved that purpose. The other was to make the races more competitive -- often in the last couple of years we had several standouts so far ahead of the others in development that the races and the betting were non-competitive, and there were a few minus show pools, which we are trying to avoid with the condition change.”

One horse who dominated the Weiss landscape in 2015 at the mountain oval was JL Cruze, en route to his capturing honours as U.S. Older Trotting Male of the Year while becoming one of the sport’s few sub-1:50 trotters by winning in 1:49.4. Whether another horse will use the Weiss as the springboard for national stardom is what keeps every owner and trainer hopeful, and racing fans excited about the competition.

In the Saturday through Tuesday schedule for 2016 at The Downs (with Monday racing starting next week, April 11), Saturday will be reserved for the top overnight horses who regularly compete at The Downs. Sunday’s headliners will be the pacing series for both males and females, while Monday will be the day for male trotters and Tuesday for female trotters.

On Sunday, the Weiss action kicks off with five divisions of the first preliminary for the male pacers and four sections of female pacers, each with a purse of $15,000. The horses in each of the four groups who perform the best in four weeks of preliminary action then will clash in a $30,000 Weiss Series Championship.

Two of the fastest male pacers meet in the first of the five male divisions Sunday, race two, as Bettor Memories (post six, driver Scott Zeron, a 1:52 winner in his last start) faces off with Settlemoir (post eight, driver Matt Kakaley, a 1:52.4 winner at The Downs in his previous engagement). Also highly regarded are the two entrants who have already beaten 1:52 this season: Options Are Adream, undefeated in six career starts (race eight, post two, driver George Dennis, 1:51.3), and Connecting Flight (race 11, post nine, driver Marcus Miller, 1:51.1), coming off a victory at The Meadows in the Walter Russell Series Final, an event akin to the Weiss Series.

Among the females, ones to watch include two fillies who were a nose apart in a recent 1:54.2 qualifier at The Meadowlands: Southwind Tango, who won that contest (race three, post five, David Miller), and Albany Girl, just a nose shy in her first raceline of the year for the all-conquering Jimmy Takter stable (race nine, post four, driver Brett Miller). Another interesting miss to keep an eye on is American Major (race 13, post four, driver George Napolitano Jr.), a recent Pocono winner who is co-owned by Meadowlands GM/CEO Jason Settlemoir, after whom the three-year-old racing in the male section is named!

On Tuesday, in three $15,000 divisions of the first preliminary for female trotters, there are five entrants from the strong locally-based barn of trainer/driver Todd Schadel. One of them is the fastest race winner of the season among these contestants, South Side Hanover, who went wire-to-wire in 1:57.1 to spring a 22-1 upset in her seasonal bow. This three-year-old, who will have to overcome post eight Tuesday, is co-owned by Schadel and legendary western Pennsylvania horseman Roger Hammer -- the same ownership that sponsored Vivid Photo, who began his career at the nearby Bloomsburg Fair, and would go on 14 months later to stand in the winner’s circle after capturing the prestigious Hambletonian.

Again, Sunday’s action will start this year at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Monday (when added next week) and Tuesday evenings, first post is slated for 6:30 p.m.

(With files from PHHA / Pocono)