There was one sure way – and it was the only way – to cash a ticket on a favourite during the Labour Day Monday twilight card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
You bet on a Julie Miller-trained horse.
Julie combined with driver/husband Andy to send out four horses on the twelve-race Pocono card. All were favourites; all won and took lifetime marks; and none of the other eight favourites could get home first.
Two of Team Orange Crush’s winning quartet were two-year-olds: the Father Patrick–Bell Power trotting filly Becky Kronos, who broke her maiden in 1:57.4 for Bruni Racing Team AB and the Sombeachsomewhere–Pleasure Beach pacing filly The Bethinator, an import from Hawthorne who ran her lifetime mark to 4-for-5 with a 1:53.4 victory for the Megan Rogers Racing Stable.
The sophomore Donato Hanover filly American Kronos, last seen in an Hambletonian Oaks elimination, found Tuesday’s easier company to her liking as she tallied in 1:53.3 for Marvin Katz, Al Libfeld and Dr. David Goodrow.
And then there was the Muscle Hill four-year-old American Moni, the last foal out of the champion mare Moni Maker. He hadn’t won at two and three in limited attempts; in 2019 before Tuesday’s race he had a first and two seconds before eliminating himself with a break over sloppy going. Here American Moni put it all together as the Pocono players’ heavy chalk, stepping to a 1:53.3 best clocking for the Moni Maker Stable.
The two younger performers won by 1-3/4 lengths and three-quarters of a length, respectively; the latter two won by 8-1/2 and 7-3/4 lengths, respectively.
(PHHA / Pocono)