Week in review, September 23-29, 2017

After a few racing weeks that were abbreviated by a week-long hiatus from live harness racing, we once again had a full week at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. And scorching weather continued in the Northeast, which, along with excellent competition, made for some of the fastest racing that we've witnessed all season long. Here are some of the finest efforts from this past racing week at Pocono, honored by the Weekly Awards.

PACER OF THE WEEK: DAVID THE SAINT

Trained by Ted Suleski, this six-year-old gelding has campaigned often at Pocono over the past few seasons and has had some fine moments, including a career-best 1:50:4 mile here a year ago. But throughout the months of August and September, David The Saint was stymied against the $8,500 condition pacers, consistently finishing out of the money.

That's when his handlers took him to New Jersey, and suddenly his fortunes changed. He finished second as a long shot at The Meadowlands in a fast time, then followed that up with a convincing victory at Freehold as a heavy favorite. His confidence restored, David The Saint returned to Pocono on Tuesday to once again face the field that had bedeviled him earlier in the meet. Leaving from post position #3 in a field of nine as a 4-1 third choice, he sat in the middle of the pace early.

The pace set by Rather Swell was a rapid one, leaving him vulnerable to the first-over charge made by David The Saint with Simon Allard in the bike. The gelding took over just past the top of the stretch and paced away from the field at that point to win by 2¼ lengths. Now energized and confident once again, this gelding appears as if he'll be treating his foes in anything but a saintly fashion for the remainder of the meet.

Other top pacers this week include: Bushwacker (Anthony Napolitano, Chris Ryder), whose victory in Saturday night's featured condition pace came in the week's fastest time at Pocono of 1:50; Boogie Nights (Simon Allard, Brewer Adams), who overcame an outside post to win a condition pace on Saturday night in 1:50:1, matching a career-best; and UF Dragon's Queen (George Napolitano Jr., Mark Ford), a mare who won Tuesday night's featured condition pace for distaffers in 1:51:4.

TROTTER OF THE WEEK: WARRAWEE ONYX

This seven-year-old gelding from the Rene Allard barn seems to have found his stride in this latter portion of the racing year. In his first 19 races of 2017, Warrawee Onyx won just once. But a win on August 28 at Pocono against $15,000 claimers started his renaissance, which continued two starts later when he beat the $15,000-$20,000 claiming handicap trotters in a career-best time of 1:54:1.

Coming off that milestone win, Warrawee Onyx was once again tasked with beating that same claiming handicap group in the Monday night feature. This time around the field featured two other horses (Calipari and Simeon), who had won their last starts in the same class. Leaving from the #1 post in a field of eight as the 3-2 favorite, Warrawee Onyx sat fifth in the early part of the mile before moving second over in the back stretch behind Get To Doin It.

Get To Doin It was able to wrest the lead away from pacesetting Calipari, but the effort he exerted to do so took a little bit out of him. With Simon Allard guiding him, Warrawee Onyx spun off the cover in the home stretch and rallied to win it by a neck. That gave him two straight wins, as he matched his career mark of 1:54:1 in the process, and three in his last four overall. He certainly looks like a trotter you don't want to face in the final portion of the meet.

Honorable mention on the trotting side goes to: Classicality (Marcus Miller, Lisa Dunn), who followed up a win at The Meadows with a win in Sunday night's featured condition trot in 1:53:2, the fastest trotting time of the week at Pocono; New Jersey Viking (Ake Svanstedt trainer and driver), a three-year-old colt who scored his second straight condition victory on Sunday night and did so in a career-best 1:53:4; and Weslynn Dancer (Simon Allard, Rene Allard), a three-year-old filly who won a condition from the #9 post on Tuesday in a career-best 1:55:1, giving her two straight victories.

LONG SHOT OF THE WEEK: ROCK ON THE HILL

More like Long Shot of the Year, as this claiming pacer driven by Anthony Napolitano scored at 90-1 on Saturday night for a payout on a $2 win ticket of $188.

DRIVER OF THE WEEK: SIMON ALLARD

Allard raced at Pocono on three straight nights this past week and cranked out multiple wins each night, highlighted by his four victories on Monday and Tuesday.

TRAINER OF THE WEEK: LISA DUNN

It was about quality not quantity for the Dunn barn this week at Pocono, as she sent out a single starter both Saturday (Redder Than Red) and Sunday (Classicality) and won with both.

That will do it for this week at Pocono, but we'll see you at the track. Feel free to e-mail me at jbeviglia@mohegansunpocono.com.

Jim Beviglia