This coming Sunday night (August 4), The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono will host the second preliminary round of Pennsylvania-sired stakes competition for two-year-old pacing fillies.
The leg will feature three divisions of a sire stakes event worth a total of $184,240, and five divisions of Stallion Series action worth $20,000 apiece.
Sires Stakes action in Race 10 will see Sweet Ace, the fastest two-year-old of 2019 regardless of gender or size of track, start from Post 6 for driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Ron Burke, and owners Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Lawrence Karr, and Jason Melillo. At The Meadows last Saturday during the Adios card, the daughter of Sweet Lou – One Ace Too Many laid off of spirited fractions, then came on in the stretch to stop the timer in 1:50.4 in an Arden Downs division. The win was her second consecutive victory after having triumphed in the first round of the sire stakes.
As a testament to how tough competition in Pennsylvania is, Sweet Ace is not even the morning line favourite for her Saturday assignment. That honour was given to JK First Lady, a daughter of Western Ideal out of 2014 U.S. Horse of the Year JK Shesalady, who also was conditioned by ‘First Lady’s trainer, Nancy Johansson. The filly will start from the rail for driver Yannick Gingras, Johansson and the 3 Brothers Stables. JK First Lady is heading into the race off of two consecutive victories in the Kindergarten Series at the Meadowlands Racetrack, the latter of which was recorded in 1:51.3 and capped off with a :26.2 final quarter.
The other two first-round sire stakes winners will start side-by-side in Race 5. Shouldabeenatd (Sweet Lou – Breakheart Pass), who set most of the pace in the Sweet Ace race and had won her sire stakes start in 1:52.2, will start from Post 2 for driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke. Post 3 will find Lyons Sentinel (Captaintreacherous – Tulu Hanover) and driver David Miller for trainer Jim King Jr. Lyons Sentinel is heading in off of a sire stakes triumph in 1:53.
The Stallion Series action will see all four opening-round winners returning for the Pocono contest. Two of them will meet each other in the ninth race: Aplomp Hanover (PP1, David Miller), who followed up her stallion series win with a triumph in an Arden Downs division, and The Partys Rockin (PP6, Tyler Buter), who scored a 14-1 upset in the first round. The other winners will both begin from Post 5 for trainer Jim King Jr.: Lyons Sweetjen in Race 4 and Shotgun Persuasion in Race 8.
The first of the 14 races set for Pocono on Sunday evening is scheduled for 7 p.m.
(With files from PHHA / Pocono)