World champion pacing colt Sweet Lou won his sophomore debut in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes action at Pocono Downs on Saturday night
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With Dave Palone in the sulky, 1-9 favourite Sweet Lou cleared to command after the :26.3 opening quarter and cruised through middle fractions of :55.4 and 1:22.4 en route to victory in 1:49.3 in his $106,113 PASS division for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings. Hillbilly Hanover finished nearly four lengths behind in second and Mc Attaboy was third.
Sweet Lou is trained by Ron Burke for his Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Lawrence Karr and Phillip Collura. The Yankee Cruiser-Sweet Future colt won 10 of his 12 starts as a freshman, including the Breeders Crown in a 1:49 World Record, while banking $688,117. He is the top ranked colt in Trot Magazine's Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.
Fellow Cup eligibles Mcerlean and Dapper Dude also won their PASS divisions.
Mcerlean parlayed a pocket trip and the passing lane into a victory in the first division. Palone did the driving for trainer John Berger, as Mcerlean, making his second start of the 2012, upended pacesetting favourite Easy Again in the stretch to win by a half-length in a career-best 1:50.1. All Week finished third. Joseph Muscara owns the McArdle-Igottwowordsforyou colt.
In the second split, Dapper Dude, who won at Woodbine Racetrack in his 2012 debut, followed that up with a late-kicking Sire Stakes victory. John Campbell was in the bike for trainer Robert McIntosh, as Dapper Dude won by a half-length in 1:49.4. Shady Breeze finished second and Cold Hearted Shark gained the show. The son of The Panderosa and Dress To Suggest is owned by the Robert McIntosh Stables Inc. of Windsor, Ont. and Al McIntosh Holdings Inc. of Leamington, Ont.
(With files from Pocono Downs)