Millies Possesion stayed undefeated when taking one of three $55,168 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes (PASS) splits for three-year-old trotting fillies on the Sunday, May 26 card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Millies Possesion showed a great deal of fortitude in her 1:56.3 tally. She tucked fourth before the :29 quarter, then prepared to make a quarter move for driver Dexter Dunn before Firedbylindie brushed to the helm and led passed the half in :59.2. Dunn had the winning daughter of Possess The Will going again, uncovered by the five-eighths, and up to challenge through a 1:28.2 third quarter with $480,000 yearling and race-favourite Beautiful Sin on her back.
Through the stretch Millies Possesion showed her talent, closing into a :28.1 last quarter in the muck to win by one-and-a-quarter lengths over Beautiful Sin, who made her seasonal debut. Firedbylindie took third.
Now perfect after four starts, Millies Possesion is trained by Jim Campbell. The unraced two-year-old pushed her bankroll to $76,184 for Fashion Farms LLC.
Driver George Napolitano Jr. placed Asiago on the engine to collect his second win in PASS action with a 1:55.2 mile. Leading through fractions of :29.1, :58.2 and 1:27, Asiago cruised to a one-and-a-quarter length win over pocket-sitter Fade Into You while race-favourite The Ice Dutchess closed from last and settled for third.
Per Engblom conditions Asiago, a winner of $163,626 for Marvin Katz, Sam Goldband, Al Libfeld, and Black Horse Racing.
Nomo Volo won her first race of the year, taking her PASS split in 1:56 going from pole to pole. Trainer-driver Jeff Gregory rated the Explosive Matter filly through splits of :27.4, :58.3 and 1:27.1 and saved enough for the stretch drive to hold off Navarone Hanover by a head. Favourite Swizzle Sticks had to make two moves and wound up fifth.
Nomo Volo now has lifetime earnings of $129,937 for Jesmeral Stable. Morning-line favourite Sonnet Grace was scratched sick.
In Stallion Series competition, George Napolitano Jr. sat behind the Cantab Hall filly Keystone Abbey, who led at every call in progress to a 1:57.1 win for trainer Chris Beaver, who also co-owns with Donald Robinson, Martin Yoder, and R.B.H. Ventures Inc. George’s other stakes win came with the Explosive Matter miss Matterlei, who went to the lead in front of the grandstand and went on to a new mark of 1:57.4 for trainer Trond Smedshammer and Purple Haze Stable LLC.
Tyler Buter’s first visit to the Stallion Series winners circle was with the Donato Hanover filly Jezzys Legacy, who sported a second in the Sire Stakes but was lowered a notch by trainer Ray Schnittker and got a popular victory in 1:57.2 for co-owners Schnittker, Little E LLC, Ted Gewertz, and Mary Kinsey Arnold.
Buter came back with another daughter of Donato Hanover, Hanovers Best, playing “pocket rocket” to perfection and then holding off Spring In Paris, who had won her first two Stallion Series starts, in 1:57.1 for trainer Rob Harmon and the partnership of Lester Gelardi Jr., Anthony Passafaro, Seafood Delight Stable, and Harmon Racing Stable Inc.