The coming of March finds the number of racing programs offered per week at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania rising to three, as there will be Saturday, Sunday, and Monday action starting at 1 p.m. all through the month. Each day will also feature a different price division of the popular Game Of Claims Series.
The Game Of Claims brings together horses of a like base claiming price for three preliminaries: Saturday will have $20,000 contests for horses valued at $25,000; Sunday will have $12,500 events for $15,000 claimers; and Monday will have $7,500 purses for $7,500-priced horses (the base prices rise slightly in the later prelims). If there are no cancellations, the week of March 25-27 will find $40,000, $25,000 and $15,000 Championships, respectively, for the top preliminary performers in the various classes (a cancellation on a given day would push that day’s series schedule back one week).
There is claiming permitted in each preliminary round and there will be plenty of horsepeople, when the “musical chairs” stop after the final preliminary, who hope they will have a sharp pacer ready for their finale. Last year, the claiming box at Pocono was one of North America’s busiest, with 554 horses changing hands over the season, to the tune of more than $12 million.
There will be excellent features away from the Game Of Claims events each day. Saturday will find a pair of $18,500 contests, one on each gait, for the fast-class trotters and pacers; Sunday has a $17,000 event for distaff pacers; and Monday has an intriguing match-up between seasonal sophomore pacing debutantes Always B Naughty (trained by Nancy Takter) and Margot Hanover (conditioned by Nifty Norman).
Program pages for all Pocono races will be available on the PHHA website.
(PHHA / Pocono)