Schadel drives win 2000 on opening day

WILKES-BARRE PA – Todd Schadel, the leader in UDR and UTR in North America last year in the 300-499 starts category, notched another harness racing  milestone Monday as Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania got its 2025 season underway after a Saturday cancellation, scoring his 2000^th sulky success as his Internationalcraze (International Moni) won the featured trot in 2:00.3.

Over a “good” track on a bitterly cold day with a strong stretch headwind, causing the variant to go from “+1” to “+2” to “+3” in time for the day’s two feature races, Schadel and the winning International Moni four-year-old gelding were not to be denied, moving before the :30 quarter and passing the next poles in 1:00.3 and 1:30.2 en route to a three-length victory in the $15,000 contest.

INTERNATIONALCRAZE REPLAY

Internationalcraze, who was the first 2:00 trotter in Butler Fair history this past summer after going exactly 2:00, is co-owned by trainer/driver Schadel and his wife Christine along with Rick and Regina Beinhauer.

Top purse of the day was the $17,000 bounty offered for developing distaff pacers, and the well-traveled Sweet Lou mare Louisville GB regained her winning ways with a 1:57.3 victory. Louisville GB, who had won her four previous starts before a hard-luck fourth last time, was four-wide early, then set into high gear past a :28.3 to make the lead and put up middle splits of :58.3 and 1:27.3 en route to a 2¼ length victory.

The Robert Cleary trainee, owned by Kenneth Jacobs, was guided by Tyler Buter, who tied with George Napolitano Jr. for opening day honors with three driving triumphs.

Pocono has racing scheduled for this Saturday and Monday, the 22^nd and 24^th, at 1 p.m. The Saturday card will find the Game Of Claims Series for pacers valued at $25,000 race the first of their three preliminaries, eight divisions strong, after losing the original initial leg to the cancellation this past Saturday; these horses will race three $17,000 preliminaries, trying to earn their way into the $35,000 Championship, now slated for Saturday, March 15. There will also be a $25,000 fast-class pacing feature on the Saturday card.Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

From the PHHA / Pocono Downs