The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono gets into the spirit of the heavenly haunted holiday this coming Monday, October 31, Halloween, with its annual staging of 'The Grey Ghost and Poltergeist Pace,' which will be held as the fifth race on the (appropriately) twilight card, because isn't twilight when the Halloween spookiness begins to come out?
The nine-horse race is comprised of horses who are grey or roan (mixed black and white with some red hair), and this year's edition includes a rare horse that is officially classified 'white' (more on him in a minute). Grey horses and their brethren make up less than five percent of racing Standardbreds.
The Downs will be 'done up' appropriately for the holiday event: outrider Tia Shafer will lead the horses to post with her horse Red, and both will be dressed in their spooky finest; the Hanover Shoe Farms' winner's circle a haunted graveyard; there will be candy, and free programs while they last.
The Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame is the sponsor of the race: the Goshen NY-based Hall will be selling wristbands honouring the great trotter Greyhound and to raise money for his museum exhibit, along with mugs featuring pictures of Pocono's 2015 'Grey Ghost' and other fun items.
Front and center on the souvenir mugs will be Gotta Love Him, who is the defending champion, a two-time winner having also taken the 2013 edition (Matt Kakaley, who is listed to drive him Monday, steered him to both victories), and a four-time competitor. Gotta Love Him is sired by Admirals Galley, who himself was sired by Laag, one of the best grey horses ever, and Admirals Galley is in turn the sire of Admirals Express, a hugely-popular Ontario-based performer who won $2.1 million in his career and had a mark of 1:48.2.
The team behind Gotta Love Him -- owner Stan and Amie Weitoish and trainer Cindy Weitoish -- must really be looking forward to Halloween, for that day will be the one-year mark of when Gotta Love Him last won -- in the 2015 Halloween pace at The Downs! (Don't feel too bad for the Weitoishs, though -- the horse has earned $24,150 since his last win). And the fall must really agree with Gotta Love Him -- in the last three years, he shows four victories, and all of them have come later than October 15!
Another interesting breeding angle is that there is a full brother and sister competing in the race, and they were assigned the outermost two posts based on good recent performance. Both the four-year-old gelding Muffins Man (post position eight) and the five-year-old mare Bettor Chill Out (post position nine) are parented by sire Bettors Delight and dam Jus Chilln Out -- a grey mare who set a world record at Pocono when she was three!
Finally, the 'white' horse -- a four-year-old named White Bliss, an extremely rare pure white Standardbred (the last one registered was in 1998). The then-yearling sold at auction for $240,000 and was purchased as a present for Asa Sjoberg, matriarch of one of Sweden's leading trotting families, with the hope that he would be a racehorse and sire. White Bliss does have a win and two seconds in his last five starts, and was timed in 1:54.2 in coming to Pocono for his last start.
Rounding out the field is JS McFlash, making his second appearance in the Pocono race for trainer Wendy Shimmin; the Roll With Joe gelding White Rolls, trained by Michael Hall; Rumor Mill, a roan mare from the Rene Allard barn; Classic Seebreeze, trained by Eric Mollor; and Jaded Truth, making his first start on the Pocono oval for trainer Pat Curtin.
All these storylines converge in the fifth race at Pocono this Monday, where the first of 14 races starts at 4:30 p.m., meaning that "The Grey Ghost and Poltergeist Pace" should crown its 2016 champion at approximately 6 p.m.
(With files from PHHA / Pocono)