Lovely Donna flies by field in feature pace

WILKES-BARRE, PA – With the temperature not breaking the mid-50s at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Monday, the Betterthancheddar mare Lovely Donna was held in reserve most of the race, then came on strongly to win the $17,500 distaff pacing harness racing feature in 1:52.

Favored Major Occasion A went to the early lead, and no one moved to challenge in the coolish temperatures during early fractions of :27.3 and :56. Past the five-eighths, Lovely Donna and driver Simon Allard was the first to go after the leader, and the winner of $185,034 rocketed out of fourth, hooked the leader past the 1:24.1 three-quarters, and then drew away easily for a two length victory over Shouldabeenatd. Andrew Harris trains the winner, who made a successful invasion from Yonkers for owner Jeffrey Williamson.

LOVELY DONNA REPLAY

George Napolitano Jr., who became the 26th driver to go over $100,000,000 in lifetime driving earnings on the Saturday card, was the day’s top driver with four visits to Victory Lane.

The claiming box is still very active at Pocono; six more horses changed hands today, bringing the total for the 131 days of racing so far to 577 purchases, Horsemen have spent $11,068,325 acquiring fresh stock, with the record Pocono claiming price of $50,000 being reached five times.

There will be no claims added to that collection Tuesday at Pocono, as the card is full of conditioned events, including a pair of $17,000 contests for developing horses in the “non-winners of eight races” category: male pacers will go in race ten, while trotters will line up behind the gate in race thirteen. Program pages for the 12:30 card are available by clicking here.

For full race results, click here.

From the PHHA/The Downs