Upsets were the order of the day on Saturday afternoon (April 20) at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, with seven $27,397 third and final prelim events of the Bobby Weiss Series for three-year-olds, four for males and three for females.
The only favourite to win, the only horse who paid less than $10, was Beautiful Roz, who completed a sweep of her prelims in a lifetime best 1:53. Jack Pelling guided the daughter of Always B Miki-Pleasant Beauty, a $270,000 USD yearling purchase, to the lead and cut out splits of :28, :56.4 and 1:24.3, seeing off her opposition by 3-3/4 lengths while returning the minimum $2.10 to win. Beautiful Roz missed a nose in her first start after going unraced at two, and since has ripped off four straight for trainer Brett Pelling and the partnership of Melvin Segal, Kentuckiana Racing Stable and Bud Hatfield, stamping her as the one to beat for next Saturday’s $50,000 USD Weiss Championship for the group.
In another Weiss cut, another daughter of Always B Miki, Big City Daisy, set the pace and then benefitted from traffic confusion on the far turn, winning in a career best 1:53.3 for trainer Emily Bost, co-owner with Bruce Potter and Steve Salerno, and driver Jim Pantaleano. Pantaleano's son Jacob sent out his first winner five days short of his 23rd birthday later in the card.
The biggest surprise of the entire day’s action came when the Sweet Lou miss Sweet Lexi Lou closed well to break her maiden in 1:54.3 for driver Tyler Buter, trainer Christopher Freck and owner Anthony Olswfski while giving a $68.40 win return to her scattered backers.
The quartet of Weiss races for “the boys” scrambled the forecast for their $50,000 USD Weiss Championship next Saturday, with perhaps the biggest lesson to be learned is not to overlook any horse driven by 24-year-old Braxten Boyd, who is up to fifth in the local drivers derby.
One division’s expected showdown between Howlenthehills and Bonaparte, the two previous double Weiss winners, didn’t come off when the former was scratched, and then the latter was used hard early and fell back late as Southwind Celsius and Boyd equalled his mark of 1:52.3, taken when he won his prelim seven days earlier. The Captain Crunch gelding is undefeated in two Lasix starts for trainer Mark Ford and the partnership of David Hamm, Glenn Phillips and Pit Bull Stable LLC.
Boyd posted a second win in the Weiss action for males with the In The Arsenal gelding Who Said I Cant, the fastest of all Weiss winners Saturday as he took a lifetime mark of 1:51.2, knocking over four seconds off his mark. Mark Harder conditions the improving sophomore for Joseph Jannuzzelli and Steven and Joseph Williams.
The Betting Line gelding Ante Up Hanover, the winner of the PA Fair Sire Stakes Championship at two, added his name to the group of two-time Weiss winners while lowering his mark to 1:53. Trainer/driver Todd Schadel co-owns the winner of 11 of 20 lifetime starts with his wife Christine.
Aint Nostopn Time, second and third in his previous Weiss prelims, couldn’t be stopped late as he rolled to an engine triumph while earning a new speed badge of 1:52.4. Jason Bartlett was sulkysitting behind the Lazarus N colt for owners FAC Racing LLC, Joseph Di Scala Jr., and Yannick Gingras and trainer Per Engblom.
Engblom and the meet’s top trainer, Jeff Cullipher, each had a double on the card. Boyd and Buter each had three successes in the sulky.
Action resumes at Pocono on Monday, April 22 and Tuesday, April 23 at 1 p.m., with both cards having the same feature format: a Game Of Claims Series Championship and a final Weiss prelim for trotters.
(PHHA / Pocono)