Three $22,603 events for high-priced claiming pacers topped a competitive card at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Sunday evening, June 9.
One of the races was new to the Pocono condition sheet – an event for four- and five-year-old pacers with a base ticket of $54,790. It was won by the favourite Topville Somrocket, who was a pocket rocket for driver George Napolitano Jr. in catching pacesetter South Point in 1:51.2 by three-quarters of a length. The five-year-old was claimed for $54,790 from trainer Jeff Cullipher.
The other two features offered older performers in $41,096-$54,790 claiming handicap events. Like Topville Somrocket, these two winners were public choices; unlike that one, both of the older winners returned back to the same stall they left.
The Shoobees Place gelding Shoobee Doo A overcame the outside post seven to author a 1:50.2 victory, his third consecutive success, in his section for driver Matt Kakaley and trainer/owner Besim Ozda, while A Fair Ol Dance N, an altered son of A Rocknroll Dance, took advantage of a two-hole trip in working his way to the win in 1:50.3 for driver Ridge Warren, trainer Ron Burke and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC along with Kitefield Stable.
The races were run off quickly starting towards mid-card due to a lighting issue in the developing dusk, with the fifth race off at 7:24 p.m. and the 12th and final race just 81 minutes later at 8:45 p.m. This meant that the claiming box was given a hard and even more compacted workout than it would have normally gotten, on a night when 13 horses changed hands at a price of $366,438.
The track’s top two drivers, Matt Kakaley and George Napolitano Jr., each had three victories on the card, which meant that Kakaley retains a four-win advantage atop the local sulky-sitters standings.
Monday's 1 p.m. card is headed by a pair of $20,548 trotting features; the racing week will then close on Tuesday with another 1 p.m. first post.
(PHHA/Pocono)