Arch Madness, driven by Brian Sears, made harness racing history Tuesday night at Pocono Downs when he stopped the teletimer in 1:51
. The 1:51 mile is the fastest ever produced on a five-eighths mile oval in the history of harness racing.
Assigned the nine hole in a deep $24,000 Open Handicap Trot field, Sears left quickly and followed Corleone Kosmos (Eric Goodell) with the latter trotter taking the field to the opening quarter in :27.3. Shortly thereafter near the three-eighths marker, Arch Madness grabbed the lead and was on the front end with the half reading :55.4. Arch Madness got to the three-quarter pole in 1:23.2 before stopping the timer in 1:51.
“Trond (Smedshammer) and I thought we would break the world record some day,” said Sears. “But being cool I didn’t think it would be tonight. Arch Madness is super sharp and he did it pretty easily. I wanted to be aggressive leaving from the outside and it worked out really well.”
This was the second win in six starts this season for the six-year-old son of Balanced Image-Armbro Archer, who is owned by the New York partnership of Marc D Goldberg and Willow Pond LLC.
Previously, Macho Lindy (Larry Stalbaum) had the all-time track mark at Pocono Downs while Scorpion Moon and Beach Nut Brand had the aged gelding trot mark of 1:52.4. Ironically, Scorpion Moon was in the Tuesday night race with Arch Madness.
The great Varenne, a seven-year-old horse, had the all-time track mark of 1:51.3 for a five-eighths mile oval. That was established July 14, 2002 in Mikkeli, Finland, with Giampaolo Minnucci in the sulky.
(Pocono Downs)