Eazy Pass justified her backing as the heaviest sort of favourite by brushing to the lead nearing the three-quarters and going on to tie her mark of 1:54.3 in the $40,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for sophomore trotting fillies Tuesday afternoon (April 27) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
P L Olivia was hustled away at odds of 32-1 and put outsiders in behind her before the :27.3 quarter, and she went on to park second choice quarter-mover Trip Sevens, leaving that rival out in the air past the :56.4 half. Eazy Pass, whom Dexter Dunn had moved out behind Trip Sevens perhaps in anticipation of her clearing, thus had the second-over journey, but before the 1:26 third panel the victorious filly was on her way to the lead, which she maintained to the wire. Eazy Pass won by four lengths over the resilient P L Olivia, with Frankly My Dear third.
Eazy Pass, who won the first and third Weiss prelim for her group while skipping the second, now sports a 4-3-1-0 seasonal record since trainer Nifty Norman removed the trotting hopples over the winter. The daughter of Muscle Hill was successful for the partnership of Melvin Hartman, David McDuffee, and Diamond Creek Racing.
The partnership of trainer John Butenschoen and driver Tyler Buter clicked three times on the Tuesday card to run their Monday/Tuesday total record to 7-5-1-1 – all with three-year-olds making their first starts of the year. The Donato Hanover gelding Truffles Too and a filly by that sire, Melania, both won in 1:54.4. Fastest three-year-old trotter on the card was the Deweycheatumnhowe gelding Dewey Arnold, now winner of two straight here and home Tuesday in 1:54.1, just a tick off the fastest sophomore trotting mile anywhere this year, for driver Jason Bartlett and trainer David Dewhurst. (Four April trotting miles in under 1:55f by three-year-olds is a pretty noteworthy feat.)
Live harness racing resumes on Kentucky Derby Day Saturday at 12:30 p.m.; joining Pocono’s temporary expatriate colony from Ontario on Saturday will be 2017 World Driving Champion James MacDonald. Program pages will be available at the PHHA website.
(PHHA / Pocono)