Dashing through what was soon to become a heavy snow, 19-1 shot Scottish caught the 1-5 favourite Street Smarts very late to win the $15,000 featured trot on the next-to-last card of the year Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 15) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Owner/trainer/driver David Hoover was far back for most of the mile with the gelded son of Kadabra, and was still 5-3/4 lengths behind at the three-quarters, four lengths back at the stretch call, and not much closer by midstretch. At that point, Street Smarts had cleared after a first-up journey and looked to be home. But Scottish and Hoover never gave in and stepped by the chalk by a half-a-length in 1:57, a new mark despite the unfavourable conditions.
Scottish was the only closer to win in the frigid conditions at Pocono on Tuesday. The next-closest thing came in the $15,000 featured pace, when the Hes Watching gelding Greystone Watchman backed out of the pocket after 47-1 Pink Floyd Hanover cleared the pacesetter late on the far turn, then went on nicely to defeat the longshot by 1-1/4 lengths in 1:54. Braxten Boyd drove the eight-time seasonal winner, coming off of only a three-day rest, for trainer Herbert Lux III and owner Robert John Becker.
Anthony Napolitano visited the winners circle three times to lead all drivers during the card.
Pocono will race its final card of 2022 this coming Saturday at 1:30 p.m., with a $25,000 fast-class pace topping the fourteen races. Also, leading trainer Ron Burke and leading driver Matt Kakaley will be feted for their excellent seasons at the mountain oval. Further, there will be a $1,018.20 carryover for the Pick 5 bet on races eight through twelve, and because it is closing day, all bets which usually carryover if no winning tickets are sold will be forced to pay out in their last iteration of the day. Program pages for all Pocono races will be available at the PHHA website.
(PHHA / Pocono)