This coming Sunday (Aug. 25), The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono will feature the fourth and final preliminary round of action for Pennsylvania-sired two-year-old trotting colts.
The program will feature two divisions of the $184,018 PA Sire Stakes, along with four divisions of PA Stallion Series action.
No horse was victorious in all of the first three prelim rounds of the sire stakes, but Sunday’s second division (Race 10), which on paper figures to be a slightly tougher cut, will feature a horse that was victorious in both his PASS starts – the double world champion Real Cool Sam, who will start from Post 4 for driver David Miller, trainer Jim Campbell, and owner/breeder Fashion Farms LLC.
An altered son of Muscle Hill – Cooler Schooner, Real Cool Sam set world records in his last two starts. He equalled the 1:53.1 standard for freshman trotting geldings on a mile track, first set by Outburst in 2013, when he won the Haughton Memorial final (for which he skipped a PASS prelim); and then, at the Meadows, he equalled the divisional world record of 1:54.4 set by Amigo Volo a week earlier. Real Cool Sam is undefeated after six career starts and has earnings of $248,134.
Two other single PASS winners will face Real Cool Sam on Sunday: Rome Pays Off (Post 1, trainer Marcus Melander, driver Mattias Melander), a winner at the Meadows in his last start; and Chestnut Hill (PP7, ‘Nifty’ Norman, Tim Tetrick), who won at Harrah’s Philadelphia on August 9.
In the other division, the Father Patrick–Margarita Momma gelding Amigo Volo, who at Harrah’s Philly first set the 1:54.4 divisional world record that was equalled by Real Cool Sam, has drawn the rail for the team of trainer Nifty Norman and driver David Miller. His only other start in the PASS was a neck defeat to Gangster Hanover, a two-time PASS winner who will not be in action Sunday.
Gangster Hanover is part of the Åke Svanstedt stable, and Svanstedt has two single-time PASS winners going against Amigo Volo: Swiss House On Fire (PP5, Yannick Gingras) and King Alphonso (PP6, Åke Svanstedt); the latter is actually the divisional pointsleader with a win and two seconds in the competition.
The battle for high finishes will determine who earns enough points to qualify for the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship and consolation, to be held September 8 at Harrah’s Philly.
The competition should be equally fierce in the Stallion Series races, which will contest their championship at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Monday, September 9. Three horses have two stallion series wins apiece thus far, and Race 4 will match two of them: Town Victor, the leading pointwinner in the series thus far with two firsts and a third, and Saxon, who is undefeated in his only two stallion series starts. The other double winner is Beyond Kosmos, who is also unbeaten after a pair of stallion series contests, who will head postward in Race 6.
(With files from PHHA / Pocono)