Fast-class horses, whether older performers or three-year-olds, won frequently during the Wednesday morning, March 26 qualifiers at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, with the mercury fairly constant a few degrees on either side of 40 degrees.
Two of the success stories of Wednesday are already declared in to race: millionaire pacers Desperate Man and Pleaseletmeknow. They will be starting in the first preliminary leg of the MGM Borgata Series at Yonkers Raceway on Monday.
Desperate Man, the former Canadian Horse of the Year, won a Florida qualifier in 1:55, scorched the local track qualifying in 1:51.1 when it was 66 degrees last Wednesday, and today won in 1:54 flat, brushing from last of five to the lead before the three-quarters and then finishing out in :27.1 for a 6-1/4-length victory.
Stablemate Pleaseletmeknow crossed to command ahead of seven others and cruised to a 1:55 three-length victory, with a :27.3 final frame in his Wednesday qualifier.
The Borgata contenders were two of four winners for the team of driver Matt Kakaley and trainer Travis Alexander during the morning's 14-race qualifying session.
Amidst the many top racers in action on Wednesday, nobody went faster than the sophomore maiden pacing filly Bettors Ticket, who was ready for a 1:53.4 tour of the Pocono oval, opening up more than 11 lengths with back half fractions of :55.3 and :27.2 for trainer Cory Stratton. Bettors Ticket, one of four winners on the day for driver Jason Bartlett, is eligible to her grouping in the Bobby Weiss Series, which begins at Pocono on April 12.
Fastest winners in the other three-year-old sectors were trotting filly My Debt Collecter, just a head off as the favourite in the New York Sire Stakes Championship last year, and here winning in 1:56.4 under the handling of Ridge Warren for trainer Nifty Norman; pacing colt RJs Red Devil, an engine winner in 1:54.4 with a :28 finale for Kakaley and Alexander after a third in the Massachusetts Championship in his last 2024 outing; and diamond-gaited colt Frank Leahy, a Keystone Classic winner last year and on Wednesday trotted out his first charted line of 2025 in :27.4 to complete a 1:55.4 success with Bartlett in the sulky for Ron Burke.
(With files from PHHA / Pocono; photo of Desperate Man winning in round one of the 2024 MGM Borgata Pacing Series)