The Explosive Matter gelding Scirocco Rob notched his third win in his last four starts at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, coming home two-and-a-quarter lengths to the good of The Lionking As in the $17,500 featured trot on Sunday, Oct. 6.
The Lionking As sped away from the pylons to take the early lead in a :27.2 opener. Scirocco Rob was soon on the move to the lead, and he got a big breather in the second split, reaching the half in :57.2. From there the sprint home was on, and nobody had more sprint than Scirocco Rob, who trotted home in :56.1/:28 to win easily for trainer Mark Silva and owners Kathleen and Lewis Whitaker Jr.
Scirocco Rob was driven by George Napolitano Jr., who had won eight races on Saturday, including each of the last five races, which make up the track’s Rainbow Pick 5 bet. Sunday George combined with his brother Anthony for another “Napolitano Rainbow Pick 5 sweep,” as he took the first two races in the sequence, while Anthony won the last three. All of Anthony’s Rainbow winners were with non-favorites, after the chalk had won the first ten races on the 13-race card. Anthony and George wound up with four driving successes each on Sunday.
Between Saturday night, Sunday afternoon at Philly, and Sunday back at Pocono, George had fifteen wins, which included the Pocono features on both Saturday and Sunday and also two stakes wins in the Simpson Series at Philly.
(PHHA/Pocono)