Homicide Hunter, already atop the standings in the Great Northeast Open Series division for trotters, marked himself as the horse to beat in his $100,000 championship event next week with an authoritative 1:51.4 triumph in his $30,000 preliminary on Sunday (Aug. 26) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
The altered son of Mr Cantab has achieved much success racing on the lead, but on Sunday he looked strong coming off the pace, a trait which may help him at the Great Northeast championship distance of 1-1/4 miles. Driver George Napolitano Jr. spotted the winner of $1,305,427 early, then put him in second-over position. When Napolitano tipped Homicide Hunter three-wide late on the far turn, the trotter surged forward and won by 2-1/2 lengths over 95-1 shot Tight Lines, who also had good late kick.
Chris Oakes trains Homicide Hunter for Crawford Farms Racing.
The top ten open trotters in the Great Northeast preliminaries were: 1. Homicide Hunter, 2. Smalltownthrowdown, 3. Lagerfeld, 4. Broadway Donna, 5. Meladys Monet, 6. Marion Marauder, 7. Sutton, 8. Muscle Diamond, 9. (tie) Guardian Angel AS and Will Take Charge.
Since some of the top ten have qualified for the Maple Leaf Trot next week, the connections of those “on the bubble” (such as Tight Lines, 11th in the standings) will likely enter and then await the results of the draw for Sunday’s card, which takes place Tuesday (Aug. 28).
The $100,000 Great Northeast Open Series championships, with open pacers and mare pacers in the other two categories, will be joined by the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championships for three-year-olds, along with their consolations, on a $1.5 million card that must not be missed next Sunday at The Downs.
A pair of $21,500 sub-features — for trotters and for pacing mares — also took place on Sunday. In the trot, Majestic Son mare Charmed Life did an unusual thing at Pocono – she came from third-over to win, swinging four-wide into the stretch and just catching pacesetting Dayson by a neck in 1:53.4. Simon Allard got a big late effort from the winner of $1,408,882 to achieve the triumph for trainer Rene Allard and the partnership of Allard Racing Inc., Yves Sarrazin and VIP Internet Stable LLC.
In the mares pace, Mach Three mare Windsun Glory posted her third win in her last five starts, this one in 1:51.1. The class-dropping winner of $306,898 briefly settled third before the quarter, then was out and moving off the first turn for driver Matt Kakaley to the lead just past the three-eighths and went on strongly, with Penpal firing late but coming up 1-1/2 lengths shy. Ron Burke conditions the winner for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, J&T Silva Stables LLC and Lawrence Karr.
(PHHA/Pocono)
I watched Homicide Hunter
I watched Homicide Hunter develop here in Indiana. He was dominate in the Indiana Sires Stakes at 2 and 3. You could tell early on that he was going to be a nice trotter.