Bond, Vanessa J best in $148,470 PASS

WILKES-BARRE, PA – They turned for home in a $74,435 division of a Pennsylvania Sire Stake Sunday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, and the two harness racing favorites were battling – the one with the driver with 14 lifetime wins in North America on the lead, the one with the driver with 12,982 wins coming on.

And it was the pacesetter, the Southwind Frank – Boccone Dolce freshman trotting filly Bond, driven by Sarah Svanstedt, who held off Fashion Annie, driven by Tim Tetrick, storming home in :27.4 to take a new lifetime mark of 1:54.2.

The two had met in a Kindergarten race the night before the Hambletonian, and it was Fashion Annie, challenging from the pocket, who was able to catch Bond by a nose, possibly explaining her 3-5 favoritism to Bond’s 7-5.

But on Sunday Bond was able to get to the lead after a :27.1 quarter and crucially had Fashion Annie have to tuck in third, which made that filly have to come that much further to reach Bond while Svanstedt was able to back off the middle fractions to :56.4 and 1:26.3.

Fashion Annie has early and late speed, but so does Bond, and in the sprint home Sunday Bond was able to edge off late to win by a length.

Trained by Åke Svanstedt and owned by Åke Svanstedt Inc., Little E LLC, and L Berg Inc., Bond now has three wins and two seconds in five career starts, and she is the only filly in either of the PA-sired groupings to have two victories through three prelims (the final one is next Sunday at Philly). As for Sarah Svanstedt, she ran her driving record at Pocono to 7-for-9 on the season.

BOND REPLAY

Don’t feel bad for Tim Tetrick, though. Fast approaching the 13,000-career win milestone (the seventh North American to that milestone), Tetrick won the other Sires division with a daughter of Father Patrick, who had four stakes siring wins, and a Stallion Series division to give Southwind Frank two stakes-successful daughters on the card.

In the other PaSS cut, worth $74.035, Tetrick drove Vanessa J (dam Evelyn) to her second stakes victory in but four career outings, adding to her win in a PA All-Stars race here by lowering her mark to 1:56.1. Vanessa J sat in the pocket while Gina’s On Fire, stepping up off a StS win, set fractions of :27.3, :57.3, and 1:26.3, then went to the Pocono Pike, trotted to the lead, then held off the onrush of 31-1 shot Flares Ziva by a half-length.

Vanessa J is owned and trained by Lucas Wallin, a fellow who has had some success pairing with Tetrick.

VANESSA J REPLAY

In the Stallion Series action, which went for $20,000 in each of five divisions, Tim won with the Southwind Frank – Cruella De Ville filly Lie In Wait, who broke her maiden with a 1:57.2 victory for Runthetable Stables and trainer Jim Campbell – another trainer with whom Tetrick has some history of teaming well. (By the way, the spelling in 101 Dalmatians was Cruella De Vil.)

Two of the Father Patrick Stallion Series winners also were taking maiden marks. They were Lindys Irishcream (dam Gin And Lindy), who closed hard off cover for a 1:56.3 victory, fastest in the Stallion races, for driver Mark MacDonald, trainer Jessica Fallon, and owners Tim Klemancic and Blake MacIntosh; and the 1:57 winner Heaven Hanover (dam Hillarmbro), driven by the meet’s leading driver Matt Kakaley, owned by S R F Stable, Rick Wahlstreet, Heights Stable, and AMG Stable Inc., and trained by Marcus Melander, who had a great weekend at Pocono with the big victories of Joviality S and Temporal Hanover a day earlier.

The other daughter of Father Patrick to win in the Stallion races, Jameson N Lime (dam Lindy On The Rocks) generated enough stretch kick to reduce her mark to 1:56.4 while winning the fifth race of her young career for driver Brady Brown, trainer Steve Schoeffel, and owners Virginia and Kathy Schoeffel, Big L Stable, and Mary Owlett. The other StS winner was the Donato Hanover – Sweetsixteenkarets miss Sweet On Her, who cut a slow half then sprinted home to win in 1:58.3 for trainer/driver Wilbur Yoder and owner Bob Troyer.

Although a winner of an Arden Downs division, Sweet On Her still paid $48.00 to win. That wasn’t the biggest-priced winner of the night, though – that honor belonged to What The Luck, who swept home off a contested pace to win in 1:52 while returning $50.40.

That horse’s winning driver? Some guy named Tim Tetrick.

Pocono concludes its weekly racing action with cards on Monday and Tuesday at 1:30; a week from Monday, Labor Day, September 5, the track will host $320,000 of Pennsylvania Stallion Series Championship action for all eight divisions. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available by clicking here.

For complete race results, click here.

From the PHHA/The Downs