Ten fields of two-year-olds went behind the starting gate at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Wednesday morning – two divisions for colts of each gait and three each for their filly counterparts.
The biggest winner in the freshman qualifiers was trainer/driver Todd Schadel, who sent out three successful pupils. He had the quickest of the baby trotting distaffs out for their education, the International Moni-Janderson miss Jakarta Hanover, who went wire-to-wire in 2:00.1, with a last quarter of :28.3. Schadel co-owns the precocious miss with Jim Simpson.
The fastest of all the day’s freshmen was the Huntsville-Peppermint Patti gelding Vandiemen Bluechip. He pounced from the pocket with a :28.1 last quarter to stop the timer in 1:57.3 for driver Scott Zeron, trainer Ashley Eldred and Blue Chip Bloodstock Inc.
Huntsville also sired the swiftest pacing filly, Bronx Barista (dam Apricot Sour). She moved from well-back early and went her own last three-quarters in 1:27.1 in reaching the wire first in 1:59 for driver Mark MacDonald and trainer Ray Schnittker, the latter co-owner with Ted Gewertz and Kitefield Stable.
Trainer/driver Åke Svanstedt sent out the continental-bred Tony Adams S, a son of Muscle Hill-Dreamgirl Hornline who raced in the pocket then buzzed home in :28.3 to win in 2:00.2 for Stall Arsenal AB.
Svanstedt also debuted a very promising older horse, the Creatine ridgling Asteroid, who has almost $200,000 in career earnings and who was racing in Sweden and Norway at the end of last year. Asteroid rocked to a wire-to-wire 1:54.1 victory in his qualifier, with a last quarter of :26.4 (coincidentally, the same last quarter Bond posted this past Sunday). Asteroid is owned by Suleyman Yuksel Stables Inc. and Michael Falk.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono; Photo of Vandiemen Bluechip's dam Peppermint Patti winning at Mohawk Racetrack)