Anwar Hanover, riding great second-over cover for driver Andrew McCarthy, caught the first-over Cruise Patrol by a neck to lower his mark by a tick to 1:51.1 in winning the $18,000 featured pace Sunday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
The winning son of Well Said had been highly-enough regarded to try the Levy Series in March, but breaks in three of his last four starts had discouraged the bettors, resulting in his long price here. Frank Kamine (who ironically once was the trainer of Saturday night’s Levy champion Keystone Velocity) conditions Anwar Hanover for owner Mike Romanelli. Anwar Hanover paid $42.40 to win.
There were a trio of $16,000 co-features on the Sunday card, one each for trotters of both sexes and one for pacing males.
Libertarian, a five-year-old altered son of Donato Hanover who was making only his 20th lifetime start, continued to make up for lost time, now having won half of his eight 2017 starts after a wire-to-wire 1:55.1 victory.
Rich Gillock trains the promising trotter for owners Thomas Brice and Charles Receski.
Earlier in the card, Gillock also conditioned another Donato Hanover winner, the filly Icy Crystals, who finally broke her maiden in her 15th start and paid $63.60 under the guidance of Marcus “I Don’t Want To Be Known As The King Of The Longshots” Miller.
Libertarian’s female counterpart was the Manofmanymissions mare Haileysgonedancing, who swung wide approaching headstretch and caught the pacesetting Catch All nearing the wire while equaling her lifetime mark of 1:55.4. Tom Jackson had sulky duties for trainer Susan Marshall, co-owner with James Matheos.
The Somebeachsomewhere colt Highalator won in the first two preliminaries of his Weiss Series competition, then kept out of the box last week and dropped in the pacing co-feature Sunday to keep his confidence high. And the strategy worked for trainer Jenny Bier as Highalator went wire-to-wire for his eighth straight victory, tallying in 1:53 for driver Victor Kirby and owners Daryl Bier and Charles Dombeck.
The Bobby Weiss Series preliminary action reclaims the spotlight on Monday and Tuesday at The Downs. Pacers of both sexes will have two divisions on Monday (minus Highalator); the trotters follow the next day with three divisions for each.
(PHHA/Pocono)