Earlier rain that had dampened the track at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, and caused the day to start out with a surface rated “good,” cleared out to improve conditions to the point that most of Tuesday’s (July 23) feature races were conducted over a “fast” surface.
The $23,288 featured pace, for males, was won by a nose by the Sweet Lou gelding Women Layer, rallying from the pocket to defeat JK Black Gold in 1:51.4. Women Layer, who had started off his sophomore campaign with six wins before a defeat in his last race, at Oak Grove 30 days earlier, worked to get the pocket behind favoured Hez Allthe Rage N, who set fractions of :27.1, :56, and 1:24.1. Women Layer went to the Pocono Pike and showed courage to earn the nod by the smallest of margins over JK Black Gold, who showed tremendous desire himself while having to pace his last half in :55 raw, only to come up on the wrong side of the photo.
The sophomore winner was winless in four starts at two, but he is making up for lost time in a big way in 2024. Jack Pelling drove him to this win for trainer/father Brett Pelling and the ownership of Howard and Judith Taylor, Order By Stable AB, and Jerry Silva.
The $20,548 co-featured paces had one division for each sex. The “boys” were topped by the Always B Miki three-year-old gelding Dublin Dasher, who sped home in :54.4 - :27.1 to defeat Vengeance Blue Chip, who performed admirably despite the dreaded “tuck-then-first-over” journey, by 1-1/4 lengths in 1:51.3. Tyler Buter handled the lines behind the winner, who has two wins and a nose defeat (to Vengeance Blue Chip) in three seasonal stats, for trainer Hunter Oakes and the ownership of Alan Johnston and H O Racing Inc.
The track was still rated good when “the girls” had their division of the co-feature, making Mighthavtime N’s 1:52.1 lifetime mark even more impressive. The daughter of Betterthancheddar has a 4-2-1-1 tally since coming from Down Under with the grinding victory over Ebony Lady, who was three quarters of a length behind and a neck in front of Sweet Lexi Lou. Ridge Warren drove the winner for trainer Scott Blackler and Arrhythmic LLC.
Matt Kakaley was lead sulkysitter on the day with three successes, two for trainer Jenny Melander.
Pocono’s current racing schedule runs from Saturday to Wednesday, with the Sunday card at 6 p.m. and the other three days’ action beginning at 1 p.m. When racing resumes Saturday, there will be a carryover into the Pick 5 wager on races five through nine, and a carryover into the High 5 wager on the last race of the day.
(PHHA / Pocono)