This year’s initial action in the Bobby Weiss Series for three and four-year-old trotters and pacers will be the highlight of the racing the first week of April at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Written for “non-winners of two races or $20,000 lifetime” as of the beginning of 2017, the Weiss Series, named after Pocono’s retired longtime trackman who was the principal architect in making the red clay surface the favourite of most of the top trainers in the sport, has a grouping for each of the sexes and gaits. Four preliminary rounds for $15,000 per division determines the top horses in the prelims who will gather for their particular series’ Championship, worth $30,000, during early May racing.
The Weiss Series kicks off on Sunday with the first round for both pacing groups, with the females slotted in races five, 11 and 12, and the males facing the starting gate in the sixth, eighth, and 10th contests. A look at the ladies’ races would show that the 12th race may be the most competitive event, with the undefeated three-year-old Chat Snap coming right back to the races five days after her third career victory, but she’ll have to solve post six in the field of eight for driver David Miller and trainer 'Nifty' Norman.
The busy barn of Ron Burke, North America’s leading stable for the last few years, will send out two nice youngsters in the competition for males: Dash Of Danger (race six, post six, driver Matt Kakaley), who won at Pocono in 1:52 last Sunday, and Art N Music (race 10, post two, also Kakaley), who comes eastward after sweeping the Walter Russell Series at The Meadows, going 1:52.4 in the final.
Tuesday’s card will be highlighted by the first Weiss prelim for trotting distaffs (their male counterparts find their Weiss action starting a week from Tuesday). Local trainer Neal Ehrhart is looking to “overwhelm the opposition with numbers,” sending out no fewer than seven entrants in Tuesday’s three divisions, but all of them would have to be on the top game to go with the likes of Whambamthankumaam (race 11, post two, trainerdriver Greg Wright Jr.), who ships in from the Suffragette City of Pittsburgh after five wins and a second in her last six starts, fastest in 1:56.3.
Pocono will be racing on Saturday (featuring good overnight action), Sunday and Tuesday this week; Monday racing fills out the normal Pocono four-day-a-week schedule starting on April 10.
(With files from PHHA / Pocono)