More than $250,000 was on the line in competition for Pennsylvania-sired three-year-old trotting males on Sunday night, June 8 at Pocono Downs, as the second preliminary leg included two divisions of PA Sire Stakes and four cuts of PA Stallion Series action contested over a track that was rated “sloppy” for all of the stakes races.
No horse was able to repeat in the Sire Stakes, but the early leader in the section would now have to be Go Dog Go, a Greenshoe-Primary Target colt, who was third in the Breeders Crown and Valley Victory last year and who made a smashing 2025 debut to win in 1:52.3 – equalling the fastest trotting mile of the year at Pocono, including aged stock and despite the sloppy going.
Driven by Todd McCarthy for trainer Carter Pinske and owners Wiesman Farms and Al Libfeld, Go Dog Go sat third behind fractions of :28.1, :57.1 and 1:25.1 before being unleashed, and the powerful trotter took it from there to win by 4-3/4 lengths, stepping his own back fractions in :55 and :27 while lowering his mark. And perhaps the scariest news of all? “He had the earplugs still in at the wire.” The minor spoils went to Hey Porter and Arrowhead Hanover.
In the other Sires Stakes section, another colt by Greenshoe (out of Starita), last year's freshman championship winner Meshuggah, after seconds in a Sire Stakes and an All-Stars division, chalked up his first win of the year while reducing his speed badge to 1:54.1.
Scott Zeron, the evening’s big winner with four visits to the winner's circle, worked out a pocket trip for Meshuggah behind Big Shoes, a first-round Sire Stakes winner who had moved to the lead past the :28.1 opener and then posted middle clockings of :58 and 1:26.4. Meshuggah hit high gear at the third pole and proved game while going his own back fractions in :56 and :27.1 to win a close contest – he triumphed by a length, with Greenma photoing out The Fix Is In, the other first-round winner, for second, ahead of Big Shoes and Frank Leahy, all within two lengths at the wire. Meshuggah is trained by Marcus Melander for Courant Inc.
Three of the four Stallion Series divisions were clocked in 1:55.1, but it was the one that went in 1:55.2 that produced the only series two-time winner: the Bar Hopping-Ginger Tree Bren gelding Gimlet Hanover, trained and owned by D. R. Ackerman and driven by Jim Marohn Jr. to a lifetime best. Gimlet Hanover held off a late rush by favoured Non Disclosure to win by the slimmest of margins.
Of the three 1:55.1 winners, the one taking a new mark was the International Moni-Desert Pepper colt Golazo, who pulled off a 14-1 engine upset for Pocono’s top driver Tyler Buter and trainer Jill Roland, the latter co-owner with David Neilson.
International Moni picked up a second Stallion Series sire credit with the gelding Wapiti Blue Chip (dam Make It Blue Chip), driven by Braxten Boyd for trainer Mahlon Martin and owners Ashley Burslem, Steven Mullen and Gregory Garton.
And Braxten Boyd picked up a second Stallion Series credit by rallying the Greenshoe-Swizzle Sticks gelding Lefties Righties from way off the pace to overhaul Give Me A Yankee for trainer Jenny Melander and the partnership of Chuck Sylvester, Charles Stansley, Lenavitt Investments and John Licausi.
Racing will continue at The Downs with Monday and Tuesday cards both beginning at 1 p.m.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono)