The late-developing Captaintreacherous-Kate Cant Wait sophomore colt Another C Note showed a new dimension to his game on Saturday, June 13 while posting victory number eight in an undefeated season, a 1:49.3 win in the $27,778 feature conditioned pace at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.
The quadruple stakes winner (including all three legs of his Pennsylvania Sire Stakes action so far) had been racing on or near the pace recently against sophomores, but here, coming off a 19-day absence against five older horses, he was taken back off the gate. Tyler Buter kept him inside through fractions of :26.1, :55, and 1:22.1, reaching the last-named station sixth and last.
But Buter found room to angle in front of a gapper on the far turn, and Another C Note was directed wide and clear nearing headstretch. And that was that, as they say, as the three-year-old was in top gear in the stretch in a last quarter of :26.3 to defeat a game Congressional (Kevin Wallis) by three-quarters of a length. Gannons Veloucity (George Napolitano Jr.) was third.
Another C Note, not eligible to the major stakes this month or next (although he is eligible for the Hempt at Pocono in August), set a new lifetime mark in the win, his 11th lifetime in 20 starts. Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Let It Ride Stables Inc. and Scott Dillon own the colt, who is trained by Ron Burke. The win price was $4.40.
The victory for one of many of Burke's star pupils capped off a grand slam on the 10-race card for the conditioner. Tyler Buter, the regular reinsman at Pocono for the Burke Brigade, piloted all four of the stable's winners. In the $22,222 sub-featured conditioned pace, Buter took full advantage of the rail with the five-year-old Sweet Lou-Riley Character gelding Solid Character ($13) and had him on the engine through splits of :27.1, :55.1 and 1:22.3. Favoured Macs Delight (George Napolitano Jr.) sat a pocket trip behind the pacesetter, but he could get no closer than 1-1/4 lengths back of the winner as this mile also went in 1:49.3. Barrow (Bradley Chisholm) was third. Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC are the sole owners of Solid Character.
A third sub-1:50 Burke-and-Buter Brigade mile was posted by the Tall Dark Stranger-Trillions Hanover sophomore gelding Thiago Hanover ($3.60), a coast-to-coast winner in 1:49.4, which earned him a new speed badge. He led through :27.2, :54.4 and 1:21.4 splits and reached the line a 4-1/4-length winner for owners Burke Racing Stable LLC, Larry Karr, Knox Services Inc. and Beasty LLC. Doctor Arroganto (George Napolitano Jr.) finished second over Trs Maserati Joe (Anthony Napolitano). The other winner for Team Burke and Buter (and for Burke Racing Stable LLC) was trotter Chapercraz ($2.20) in 1:52.4. The Saturday triple put Burke on top of the Pocono trainers' standings as he flipped a one-win deficit to Per Engblom into a lead of two.
In the day’s top trot, a $24,306 conditioned contest for developing horses, the Wheeling N Dealin-Lmc Marshmellow gelding Lmc Wagon Wheel ($7) continued in impressive form, tucking third early then splitting horses in mid-stretch to rally for a 1:54.2 tally for driver Ridge Warren. Owner William Hartt and trainer Dean Eckley acquired the trotter via claim for $47,945 on May 19, and the four-year-old, an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold winner last season, has two wins and a third since moving into their charge, earning $30,139 in that brief period.
The first sub-1:50 mile of the day was provided by Caviart Camden in the first race, pacing to victory in 1:49.4.
Besides Burke/Buter, horsemen with doubles were drivers Braxten Boyd and Anthony Napolitano, the latter the guide of Caviart Camden.
More than $200,000 USD in purses will be contested by Pennsylvania-sired three-year-old trotting fillies in their second preliminaries in Sire Stakes and Stallion Series competition during Pocono’s 5 p.m. twilight card on Sunday. First-round Sire Stakes winners Maya Patel Hanover and Wendalyn Hanover are entered, along with the 2025 champion in this division, Ginger Tree Lex. Three first-leg Stallion Series horses will try for two straight in their category.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono)