The final card of the 2024 harness racing season at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania was held Saturday, Nov. 23, with an off track, temperatures barely above 40°F (4°C), and snow in the infield for the afternoon finale.
Closing day features were a trio of $23,611 contests, all of them contested after the track was upgraded from “sloppy +1” to “good +1.”
The pacing division, restricted to males, had the American Ideal three-year-old pacing gelding Seen Here run his record to two wins and a second since entering the Jeff Cullipher stable with a 1:52.2 score. Tyler Buter, who along with Matt Kakaley had four victories on closing day, brushed the favoured sophomore to command in front of the stands and kept piling on the speed, finishing 1-1/2 lengths to the good of second choice Solid Character for Pollack Racing.
The faster of the trotting headliners went to the International gelding Dark Mind, winning for the third straight time for trainer Noel Daley and owner Sonja Booth, here in 1:55.3. Dark Mind was third-over in a good cover flow for driver Anthony Napolitano, went wide and was along late to beat out pacesetter Green Pastures by 1-1/4 lengths, with Sapphinerainstar shaking free to get beaten in the photo for the deuce and ending a five-race win string.
In the other diamond-gaited split, another altered son of International Moni, Dejerate Hanover, followed solid cover, tipped wide, got the lead, and then held off the horse on his back, Kovu AS, by a half length in 1:56.1. Tyler Buter drove the winner, a 10-time winner for the campaign, for trainer Ron Burke and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi, FAC Racing and Yannick Gingras.
The top horsepeople of the meet were honoured on closing day. Matt Kakaley won his third straight dash title and fourth local win title overall (along with two UDR crowns), finishing the Pocono year with 280 visits to Victory Lane. David Miller, with occasional appearances for rich competition, got in enough drives (one per racing day) to qualify for UDR honours and won his first local title of any kind with a .361 average And all-conquering trainer Ron Burke had never won a Pocono training crown before 2020, but now he’s won three straight and four of the last five after sending out 79 winners. (UTR records have not been historically kept at Pocono.)
There was a retirement ceremony for a starting gate-load of distinguished 14-year-olds, and not since Foiled Again’s retirement fete has perhaps an assembled collective bankroll taken its bow. The eight horses honoured – Bilbo Hanover, Blow A Cloud N, Bye Bye Michelle, Frac, Iammrbrightside N, Lachie Maguire N, Scott Rocks and The Real One – have total lifetime earnings in excess of $6.2 million with two millionaires, four other $600,000+ winners, and all having earned more than $320,000 as they head off into their sunsets.
(PHHA / Pocono)