Weekend fields set for Pocono Downs opening

WILKES BARRE, PA – Tuesday (Feb. 14) brought a second day of qualifying races and the draw for Sunday’s second card of the harness racing season at the rechristened Pocono Downs at Mohegan Sun Pennsylvania.

Following Saturday’s opening day, the Sunday card (both at 1:00) will feature a trio of $15,000 events for “nw 4 races” horses. The second race pacing mares contest looks like a wide-open event, while in the tenth race event for male pacers, Bullville Frank (Roll With Joe), a good closer, faces lesser but will have to overcome the difficult seven post for driver Anthony Napolitano and trainer Steve Crevani.

The seventh race trot finds Cantstop Yankee (Whataworkout, post five, driver Tyler Buter, trainer Deborah Daguet) coming off a 1:56.1 victory in a Monday qualifier, a time which could make him tough in here if he minds his manners, which has not always been the case.

The Stunning Nun N (Bettor’s Delight), starting from post two in the $9,000 fourteenth race pace, is that rarest of horses, a horse “dropping two classes off a victory”! Her earnings in her last five starts when the race was drawn Tuesday morning were $8,060, below the upper limit for this class, but then on Tuesday afternoon at Saratoga, the Kiwi import closed to take that track’s $17,000 top-level handicap pace in 1:56.1 over the half-miler.

Because she “fit” Sunday’s class when the race was drawn, The Stunning Nun N is an “eligible at time of entry (ETE)” horse, and could make it two straight for trainer Kevin Reynolds Jr.

The team of driver Anthony Napolitano, trainer Lance Hudson, and owner William Hartt, who had the fastest trotting qualifying winner on Monday (Breckenridge, 1:55.1), turned the same trick for the second straight day when the Crescent Fashion gelding Lonestar Fashion rallied from the pocket to post a nose decision over Friends After Six in 1:57.1. The fast trotter came home in :56.3 – :27.3 to be on the upper side of the photo.

Anthony Napolitano also guided the fastest pacing winner in the Tuesday qualifiers, the Rockin Image gelding Seal O’Neill, home first in 1:55.1. The veteran was on his game coming back to Pocono, going from last to first while pacing his own third quarter in :27.2, then drawing off by three lengths.

Qualifiers, and past performances for the races after scratch time, can be found on the PHHA website by clicking here.

For complete Saturday race entries, click here.

For complete Sunday race entries, click here.

From the PHHA / Pocono Downs