Broadway Bruiser and Credit Fraud both became two-time winners in the Game Of Claims Trotting Series for $15,000-level horses on a Monday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, where the temperature cracked the freezing mark only near the end of the card.
Those two horses shared a couple of other traits, too: they were both driven to victory by a Napolitano, with each horse retaining the brother who won with them last week; they did this despite the fact that both were claimed out of their first prelim round; and both will again be moving to a new barn via claim after their triumphs in $15,000 divisions Monday.
Broadway Bruiser, an altered son of Muscle Mass, was slightly the faster of the two, winning in 1:57.1 for George Napolitano, Jr., whose three victories gave him fifteen for the Saturday-Sunday-Monday local racing week. Credit Fraud, a Jailhouse Jesse mare, went in 1:57.3 with Anthony Napolitano in the sulky.
Neither was the fastest winner in the series today: that honour went to the Cantab Hall gelding Willie B Worthy (“Anthony Nap”), who turned the tables over her first round conqueror Explosive Magic (“George Nap”) with a neck decision in 1:57. Both of those horses will reside in a new barn after a claim.
The other series winner Monday was Adagio De La Tour, an altered son of Lillum Madrik who triumphed in 1:57.1 for driver Matt Kakaley after finishing second in the first leg. He is the only one of this week’s winners who did not change hands, going back to trainer Ron Burke and the partnership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC after they claimed him last week.
It will be interesting to see if the French-bred’s connections try keeping him out of next Monday’s final preliminary round (and the claiming box), hoping his first and second will get him a spot in his Championship. Love The Action was the only horse to try that tactic in the many Game Of Claims Pacing Series earlier, and he squeezed into his final in the ninth and last slot one point ahead of the AE1 horse, and then promptly triumphed in his Championship.
In all, nine horses in the Series will live in a new environment after their races Monday, after fifteen were taken out of the first leg. Monday’s claiming action brought the week’s totals to 38 claims for $637,000, and the meet’s to 191 transactions for $3,407,855 in thirteen cards.
(PHHA / Pocono)