Trainer Travis Alexander sent out three of the six qualifier winners at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Wednesday morning, April 22. All were older pacers defeating some promising returning three-year-olds – and each winner was handled by a different driver.
Millionaire Pleaseletmeknow stopped the timer in 1:52.2, closing inside from the pocket in a :27.3 final quarter for Jason Bartlett to down the sophomore leader Knoxville, who was third in the New York Sire Stakes final last year. Owned by Fiddler's Creek Stables, the homebred American Ideal-I Said Please gelding qualified for the second time in his seven-year-old season.
The Greek Freak, a nine-year-old Captaintreacherous-Thirty X gelding with nearly $700,000 on his card for owner Gino Toscani, wired his field in 1:52.3 with Braxten Boyd in the bike. He has won two of his six starts this year and was back in action after a two and half week layoff. Among the defeated were two three-year-old fillies: Tall Dark Tequila, who was beaten a neck finishing third in the Matron last year, and the winner’s stablemate, Odds On Monetary, a multiple NYSS winner who was a close third in the Big Apple final.
The third winner was a newcomer to the Alexander barn, the recent Dover Open Mare mainstay Ballast, who led throughout and scurried home in :27.2 in a 1:53.4 mile for driver Matt Kakaley. A four-year-old daughter of Tall Dark Stranger-Catamaran, Ballast has six top three finishes from 11 seasonal starts, which put her career bankroll over $280,000 for owner Evm Racing. Fillies were second and third behind her: Say Goodnight, who paid $135.60 in winning the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship last year, took the deuce, ahead of Long Shore, the Big Apple winner.
Going a fast mile after coming up from Florida was another sophomore pacing filly, the Hunter Oakes-trained Imagine Heaven, who might have been surprised with the temperature at 7°C after her wintering, but still went 1:54.4 in making every pole a winning one, with a :27.1 last quarter. Bartlett drove the Papi Rob Hanover-Ok Heavenly filly, who collected a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes win in her rookie campaign.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono; photo of Pleaseletmeknow from a previous win at Yonkers Raceway)