The lure of $2.3 million USD in purses, plus in many cases divisional bragging rights, have attracted a sizable portion of harness racing’s stars to Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania this Saturday, Aug. 16 for its biggest card of the year, Sun Stakes Saturday. The 14-race program, starting at 2:30 p.m., is bringing to the mountain oval many of the best horses in North American harness racing, both this year and in recent campaigns.
The major format of the day is as follows: each of the four divisions of three-year-olds, separated by sex and gait, are seeded by their money-earnings in 2025, with a maximum of eight horses per field. The two stakes for males, the Earl Beal Memorial Trot and the Max C. Hempt Memorial Pace, will race for $300,000 USD, $200,000 USD and $100,000 USD in three races for each respective group as sorted by seasonal money-winnings. The James Lynch Memorial Pace and Delmonica Hanover Trot, the companion events for fillies, have $250,000 USD, $125,000 USD and $75,000 USD sections, also separated by 2025 earnings.
There will also be $100,000 USD Invitationals for the top older horses on both gaits: the Always B Miki Pace and the Sebastian K S Trot, named after the co-fastest pacer and fastest trotter ever at Pocono.
Here is a brief look at the top horses in the major contests on the Sun Stakes Saturday card, per event – normally, “the boys,” with their bigger purses, would be mentioned first, but there is one filly showdown that has been awaited for months, and so it will be at the top here:
James Lynch Memorial Pace ($250,000 USD division race 10; $125,000 USD division race six, $75,000 USD division race two)
Everybody’s been looking forward to the matchup between Miki And Minnie, No. 1 in the recent Top Ten poll and Dan Patch Award winner last year, and Chantilly, Horse of the Year in Canada after an undefeated freshman campaign, and they are finally going to see this confrontation on Saturday.
Miki And Minnie (post two, driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Chris Ryder) has won seven times in eight seasonal starts (the only horse to beat her, Rodeo Drive Deo, right here at Pocono by a head, starts just inside her), and has won her last four starts, all stakes, by more than 10 lengths combined. She’s versatile and determined, and she has a familiarity with the five-eighth-milers.
Chantilly (post six, driver James MacDonald, trainer Nick Gallucci) ventures away from her home track of Woodbine Mohawk Park for the first time in her career. She has had brilliant success at the Campbellville, Ont. oval, winning all nine of her freshman races and the first five races of her sophomore campaign. She will be looking to bounce back from her first loss, a Preferred against older mares last Friday, in which she had terrible traffic trouble.
Delmonica Hanover Trot ($250,000 USD division race 11; $125,000 USD division race seven, $75,000 USD division race one)
There’s another big filly showdown in the Delmonica Hanover, between two misses in the Top 10: Conversano and Yo Tillie.
Conversano (post three, driver James MacDonald, trainer Juan Cano) comes off a victory in the prestigious Hambletonian Oaks and the methodical miss has come in first in seven of nine seasonal starts.
Yo Tillie (post seven, driver Todd McCarthy, trainer Andrew Harris) was not eligible for the Hambletonian Oaks, but she has been wreaking stakes havoc when she has raced, going undefeated in five seasonal starts (she and Conversano have not met this year). Yo Tillie has been showing blistering speed on mile ovals; her adjustment to an outside post on a smaller oval will be a key here.
Max C. Hempt Memorial Pace ($300,000 USD division race 12; $200,000 USD division race eight, $100,000 USD division race four)
In writing about the glamour division, the first word still must be given to Louprint, last year’s Dan Patch Award winner in this group, and impressive while undefeated in 2025 until being injured and going to the sidelines – at last word, he is expected to return, being pointed to the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at month's end.
The two who have best filled the opening left by Louprint are Prince Hal Hanover (post one, driver Todd McCarthy, trainer Dr. Ian Moore) and Twisted Destiny (post three, driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Chris Ryder). Prince Hal Hanover has used his gate speed and handiness to take the division’s last two major events, the Adios and the Milstein, but Twisted Destiny won the Messenger, has not been far behind Prince Hal Hanover in his last two races and gave Louprint all he wanted in a race at Pocono earlier this year.
Captain Optimistic, winner of the Cane Pace, and Dandy Ideal, who was in the photo with Twisted Destiny in the Messenger and has since won four straight, are ignored at your own peril.
Earl Beal Memorial Trot ($300,000 USD division race 13; $200,000 USD division race nine, $100,000 USD division race three)
The horses likely to be most fancied in the Beal start from the middle of the gate: Super Chapter (post four, driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Marcus Melander) and Emoticon Legacy (post five, driver Louis-Philippe Roy, trainer Luc Blais).
Super Chapter ripped off five wins in stakes company to start his 2025 campaign, then had to settle for second in the Hambletonian as he was caught behind a tiring pacesetter and could not rebuild momentum quickly enough. Emoticon Legacy rang up four wins, also all in stakes, to start the year before having a subpar day at The Hambletonian, but it wouldn’t be hard to see him bounce back and be right in the picture.
Sebastian K S Trot ($100,000 USD race five)
Warrawee Michelle, the winner of the 2024 Delmonica Hanover on Sun Stakes Saturday, has an opportunity to perform an impressive double as she starts from post three in the Invitational Trot. She brings the right connections: the race is named after track record holder Sebastian K S, last year’s winner was the great Jiggy Jog S, and both of those horses – and Warrawee Michelle – were handled by Åke Svanstedt.
Security Protected (post eight, driver Andy McCarthy, trainer Marcus Melander) came from 11th at the three-quarters in his last start, the Cashman, to be second to Periculum, but his chances were not helped at the post draw when he was stuck behind the eight-ball.
Always B Miki Pace ($100,000 USD race 14)
Ken Hanover (post three, driver David Miller, trainer Polie Mallar) has been the “form” horse of the Invitational pacing group, with six wins in eight 2025 starts and a Pocono victory on his resume, and he’s likely to be the one to have to go through to win the Always B Miki.
Captain Albano (post five, driver Todd McCarthy, trainer Noel Daley) won the Hempt last year, so he has an opportunity similar to the one Warrawee Michelle has, completing a special Sun Stakes Saturday double.
The two inside horses, Abuckabett Hanover and Maximus Miki, also appear to be major dangers in here.
And don’t think the “consolation races” for the three-year-old don’t have some firepower, either: for example, the very first race of the day, the third-ranked of the Delmonica Hanover races, has merely this sector’s 2024 U.S. divisional champion, Champagne Problems, and last year’s Breeders Crown winner in this group, Lady Landia.
The Sun Stakes Saturday supercard will also have four guaranteed pools in multi-race bets, in conjunction with the United States Trotting Association's Strategic Wagering Initiative:
- Races 10-13: $10,000 guaranteed Pick 4 pool (with the four big races for three-year-olds)
- Races 1-4: $5,000 guaranteed Pick 4 pool
- Races 5-9: $5,000 guaranteed Pick 5 pool
- Races 9-11: $5,000 guaranteed Pick 3 pool
The final scratches and driver changes will be posted early Tuesday afternoon on the United States Trotting Association website. Program pages will be available at afterward at phha.org.
To view the complete entries, click here.
(PHHA/Pocono; photo of Chantilly winning at Woodbine Mohawk Park)