Despite a strong headwind hitting the trotters and pacers in the face as they entered the homestretch at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Sunday night (June 5), closers won both of the $25,000 Winners Over features.

The winners came from almost-opposite ends of the pari-mutuel spectrum: Cash Me Out paid $53.80 as the second-longest shot in the trot headliner, while $6.80 favourite Devil Child took the victory in the pacing mares spotlight race.

A front-stretch headwind, of course, means a strong backstretch tailwind on a five-eighth-mile track such as Pocono, and quarters one and three were vicious in both features. There were no fewer than five lead changes in the field of nine in the top trot as numbers of :26.2, :56, and 1:23.3 were put up, as Cash Me Out was able to overhaul the horse responsible for the last number, Wind Of The North (ironic name in this discussion), by a half-length in the final 100 feet, stopping the timer in 1:53.3 over sloppy going. Andrew McCarthy drove the winning Cash Hall gelding, now with a career bankroll of $524,299, for trainer Kyle Spagnola and owners Taylor Racing LLC.

McCarthy was almost able to pull off a sweep of the features, as his mare, God Forbid N, swept wide into the lane following wind-influenced numbers of :26, :55.3, and 1:22.1 and made the lead, but the horse on her back, Devil Child, tipped wider and was able to pace past in the latter stages, stopping the timer in 1:51.2 while three-quarters of a length ahead. Devil Child, a daughter of American Ideal driven by David Miller for trainer Chris Oakes, had been on the lead in all four of her previous 2016 races, but Miller didn’t get into the Hall Of Fame by not knowing how to adjust for conditions, and he got this mare home tonight to raise her lifetime earnings to $448,138 for owner Susan Oakes and Crawford Farms LLC.

(PHHA/Pocono)