Always At My Place, a six-year-old gelding by Always A Virgin who set a still-standing world record for his division with a 1:47.2 victory on Sun Stakes Saturday 2015, took Saturday night’s $20,000 pacing feature at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in a 1:48.2 effort that may have approximated his record mile, as it was conducted over a track rated 'sloppy +1.'
George Napolitano Jr. placed Always At My Place in the “quarter-mover #2” position, tailing El Bloombito’s move to take away the lead from first-to-the-top Long Live Rock after the :26.2 opener. Once El Bloombito cleared, Always At My Place steamed by, putting up middle splits of :53.4 and 1:21.1, then coming home in :27.1 and looking like he could have gone around again as he won by four and a half lengths. Ron Burke conditions the winner of $642,022 for Burke Racing LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Lawrence Karr, and Phil Collura.
Top trot on the soggy card was a $16,500 contest, with “George Nap” completing a sweep of the high-level conditioned events with the SJs Photo gelding TSM Photo Bugger, who raised his earnings to $688,038 with a 1:54 score. After sitting a pocket trip behind a fast (1:24.4) pace, TSM Photo Bugger trotted to the top then held off Panana Republic for trainer Karen Fread and owner Theodore Tomson.
Kevin Wallis, fifth on the list of active all-time winningest drivers (if you count Campbell and Lachance retired), added career victory 10,152 when he guided Dynamic Edge to victory as the biggest longshot of the night, helping him become a pocket rocket while paying $56.40 to win.
(PHHA/Pocono)