On Monday (July 8) and Tuesday (July 9), The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono will host $330,000 worth of Pennsylvania All-Stars stakes for two-year-old trotters. Monday will find six divisions of competition for males, while on Tuesday, five races for fillies will go behind the gate.
The Marcus Melander stable, which has dominated the three-year-old trotting colt division so far with Greenshoe, Gimpanzee and Green Manalishi S, will send an entrant out in each of the six Monday All-Stars divisions. Five of Melander's entrants won freshman qualifying races to date. The fastest winner is the Muscle Hill-Nalda Nof colt Hellbent For Am S, who was a dead-heat winner in 1:56 at The Meadowlands. Another is Rome Pays Off, the Muscle Hill-Order By Wish full brother to Earl Beal Jr. Memorial winner Marseille.
Among the other entrants are Paulie Walnuts, a two-time winner already with a 1:56.2 mark, and Real Cool Sam, who won his purse debut in 1:56.
Two-year-old trotting fillies have already completed a leg of their pari-mutuel Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series competition, and two such Sire Stakes winners are slated to race at Pocono on Tuesday.
The Father Patrick-Behindclosedoors miss Sister Sledge, who won three straight qualifiers at Gaitway, captured the fastest Sire Stakes cut this past Tuesday at The Meadows in 1:56.2 for the Ron Burke stable. Aldabra Hanover, who also won a Sire Stakes at The Meadows, is slated to return as well.
(with files from PHHA/Pocono)