Drivers Simon Allard and Anthony Napolitano pretty much had a "wire-to-wire" domination of the Friday night card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, with the second- and third-leading driver at The Downs, respectively, each guiding five winners.
Allard four of the card's first five and Napolitano four of the last five.
Allard almost opened the card with a natural five-bagger, taking races 1, 3, 4, and 5, and losing the second by only a head. He also just missed by a nose in the seventh, which may have been the tipping of the night's power, because Anthony Napolitano's horse was just barely more photogenic for his first of his evening's quintet. He then beat Allard -- by a length, a big margin this night -- in the tenth to start his 4 for 5 finish.
Both Simon Allard and Anthony Napolitano have brothers who also campaign at Pocono -- in fact, they are respectively the leading trainer and driver at the mountain oval, Rene Allard and George Napolitano, Jr., and both of them also had productive days. Rene Allard had four wins on the card, including sending out three of Simon's five (and the photoed-out streak interrupter in the second), with his fourth winner guided for Rene by -- um, Anthony Napolitano (and yes, that was the 10th race, where Simon was second as mentioned above).
George Napolitano, Jr. visited Victory Lane twice Friday at Pocono and hit the board in nine of ten drives, following a 9-4-2-0 afternoon at Harrah's Philadelphia -- the third straight day he's had at least four wins at Philly. Today's six wins gives him a staggering 20 in the last three days (including his ten-bagger on Wednesday between the two plants), and he has 54 winners through the 18th day of the month in a (very outside) pursuit of a third straight month with 100 or more sulky triumphs.
(PHHA/Pocono)