Crystal Fashion, winner of the 2018 Beal Memorial at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, continued a streak of winning at the mountain track every year since age two when he won the $17,500 featured trot here on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 24).
The Cantab Hall gelding raced in the pocket, the best place to be at Pocono on this day (winning half the fourteen races), through fractions of :27.2, :56.2 and 1:24.4, then was moved outside by driver George Napolitano Jr. midturn and easily took over, crossing the wire first by two-and-a-half lengths in 1:53.2. The veteran earned most of his $2,173,749 lifetime bankroll for Fashion Farms LLC, but trainer Chuck Crissman Jr. and EVM Racing LLC look like they have a horse who will continue to add to that lofty total off the solid form shown during his current two-race win streak.
An even faster trotting mile, 1:52.2, was put up by Eurobond, the veteran son of Love You, who was parked past the half before getting the lead for driver Matt Kakaley but still drew off through the last quarter while winning the $14,500 contest for trainer Travis Alexander and Morrison Racing Stables.
On the pacing side, the $17,500 top event produced a 10-1 upset winner in the Betterthancheddar gelding Parmesan N. Anthony Napolitano kept his charge third-inside most of the mile as favored Carlisimo moved to the lead past a :26.4 quarter and put up midsplits of :56.1 and 1:23.3, then swung Parmesan N wide and caught the pacesetting chalk by a neck after a hard-fought battle in the 1:51.1 mile. Michael Deters trains the winner for himself and partners Joel Warner, Lawrence Barnett, and John Spindler.
The meet’s leading driver, Matt Kakaley, came home first five times on the card, three times sitting behind the pacesetter and twice sitting behind the horse in the two-hole.
Pocono will be racing this Monday and Tuesday afternoons at 1:30 p.m.; the card for next Saturday, October 1, will change from the Pocono norm by beginning at 3 p.m. after a concert here the night before. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available at the PHHA website.
(PHHA / Pocono)