Satin Dancer took her field coast-to-coast in winning the $17,500 featured trot Sunday night (Sept. 1) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, equaling her lifetime mark of 1:53.
The Big Stick Lindy five-year-old mare had favoured Two AM stalking her through fractions of :27.2, :56.2 and 1:24.3. But Satin Dancer sailed on smoothly on the front end, withstanding Two AM by a length for trainer Travis Alexander. A champion in Indiana at two and three, earning just over $600,000 in his first two years of racing, Satin Dancer now has a lifetime bankroll of $727,040.
A large carryover was brought into a mandatory distribution of the Rainbow Pick 5 pool (pick winners in the last five races), with the resultant jackpot up for grabs a staggering $320,237.30. Satin Dancer paid $10.60 as the fourth choice in the Rainbow Pick 5 opener, bringing the record of favourites to 0-for-10 for the night, but things stabilized somewhat thereafter with two favourites, a second choice, and a third choice winning the other Rainbow races, so that a successful 20-cent ticket on the winning 5-4-6-1-9 combination brought $1,280.94 to its backers. The big jackpot helped bring about a total handle for the Pocono card of $621,081 from its followers far and wide.
There were a trio of $17,000 co-features, one for each sex of pacers and one on the trot. The American Ideal gelding Daamericansky lowered his mark to 1:49.3 in one of the paces. Making the early lead in :26.3 for driver Marcus Miller, Daamericansky yielded to favoured Quatrain Blue Chip and sat behind the sophomore through middle splits of :55.3 and 1:22.3, then gained into a :27 last panel to post a length victory. Mark Silva conditions the winner of two of his last three for owner Jean Claude Dessureault.
In the mares pace co-feature, the Art Professor mare Robyn Camden lowered her mark over three seconds, making two speed moves to control the pace through :26.2, :55.2, and 1:23 for driver George Napolitano Jr., then burning home in :27.1 to complete a 1:50.1 package for trainer Rene Allard. The mare is owned by Jason Osullivan of Ireland, was bred in Great Britain, and has now won 19 times in 31 Transatlantic starts.
The trotting co-feature saw three-year-olds finish one-two ahead of their elders, as the Yankee Glide gelding Amador held off late-closing Explosivebreakway by a nose in 1:54.2 for driver Marcus Miller and trainer Joseph King. For Amador, it was his second-straight win and fourth in his last seven.
(PHHA/Pocono)