Jas Bluestone has worked back into top form, taking his third victory in his last four starts while winning the $21,621 featured claiming handicap trot in 1:55.3 on Tuesday afternoon, June 17 at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.
Jas Bluestone, the 5-2 second choice upon stepping up in class, made speed moves before and after the :28.4 quarter for driver George Napolitano Jr., and got an easy half of :58.4, after which favourite Jeffery P (Tyler Buter) came at him uncovered. Jeffery P gained to the 1:26.4 three-quarters and continued to pressure the leader, but Jas Bluestone needed only mild late coaxing to maintain a half-length advantage over the chalk to the wire. The six-year-old winning son of Anders Bluestone-Jas Commando races for trainer Joe Pavia Jr. and owner Kathleen Napolitano.
A $20,270 claiming handicap trot for horses just a level below the feature race field was taken by the Manofmanymissions-Vegas Virgin gelding Vegas Ticket and Tyler Buter in 1:56. For the fifth straight week, Shikansen (Simon Allard) had the lead at the half, three-quarters and stretch call, but again he could not quite maintain the advantage, as Vegas Ticket, now a winner of half of his 14 seasonal starts, came out of the pocket and went by the pacesetter. Trainer Ron Burke, the Pocono leader, and Burke Racing Stable and Weaver Bruscemi, the owners, saw the winner leave their barn after going three-for-three with him since they claimed him on May 26.
Driver Braxten Boyd, who came heartbreakingly close to defeating Louprint and winning the North America Cup with 53-1 Madden Oaks on Saturday, again got a big mile out of a rank longshot, putting a maiden mark of 1:54.3 on the Roll With Joe-Iwannagohome filly Rwehomeyet, who paid $180.40 for a $2 win ticket, more than double the previous seasonal high here. The winner had only a second in seven previous start, beaten in a photo in a mile with a 1:00 last half, but here Boyd went around a breaker at the half and then whooshed her uncovered down the backstretch in a :26.4 third quarter to go by favoured Logans Heros (George Napolitano Jr.) en route to an open-length triumph for trainer Jacob Hartline and Anatolia Racing.
Tyler Buter continued at a scorching pace on Tuesday by bringing home five winners, which runs his totals locally to 15 for the completed four-day week, 35 for June (and it’s only the 17th) and 87 Pocono visits to the winner's circle since May 1. Two of Buter’s winners on Tuesday came for top trainer Ron Burke, and two for second-place Hunter Oakes. The winners of the two other races featured in this report, Braxten Boyd and George Napolitano Jr., came home first three times each.
U.S. champion two-year-old filly of 2024 Miki And Minnie, undefeated in three 2025 starts, will be the star of a powerful card at Pocono on Saturday at 1 p.m., competing in a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes. After a double carryover, there will also be a $10,000 guaranteed pool for the fifth race Pick 5, a sequence which will include Miki And Minnie’s race.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono)