The Muscle Massive filly Treviso is the only sophomore trotting miss to have a win in each of the three preliminaries of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes after a 1:54.2 victory on Sunday (June 18) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, while the other division was taken by Overdraft Volo in 1:54.3.
Despite winning her two previous Sire Stakes prelims, and a Currier & Ives division in between, Treviso was the 9-5 second choice behind 3-5 favourite Thats All Moni, a winner in the second leg. But trainer/driver Charlie Norris yielded the early lead and followed the chalk to the stretch, then sailed right on by to win by three and three-quarter lengths, raising Treviso’s lifetime earnings to $240,896 for the Klis Brothers Stable and Carrie Norris.
The Yankee Glide filly Overdraft Volo is now two-for-two in the Sire Stakes and for 2017 after overcoming a first-over journey and lowering her mark to 1:54.3 in the other section. Last year’s PA divisional champion Fine Tuned Lady made a threatening rally but came up a half-length shy behind the winner of $202,340, who is owned by the Pinske Stables and Kentuckiana Racing Stables and is backed by Team Orange Crush – driver Andy Miller and trainer/wife Julie.
In a $25,000 Winners Over Handicap Trot, Homicide Hunter, returning to the track where he trotted the second-fastest mile over a five-eighths-mile oval (1:50.1) last year, caught favoured Tuonoblu Rex to post a 1:52 victory. Tuonoblu Rex tried to steal with the race with a :26.4 third quarter that got him to the third pole in 1:22.2, but Homicide Hunter, stalking him from the pocket, had enough to go by late for driver George Napolitano Jr., trainer Chris Oakes, and Crawford Farms Racing.
(PHHA/Pocono)