Potential 2025 stars qualify at Pocono

WILKES-BARRE PA – Fast-class horses, whether older performers or three-year-olds, won frequently during the Wednesday morning harness racing qualifiers at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, with the mercury fairly constant a few degrees on either side of 40 degrees.

One of the success stories of Wednesday is already declared in to race: the $1.47 million-winning Desperate Man (Shadow Play), who won a Florida qualifier in 1:55, scorched the local qualifying in 1:51.1 when it was 66 degrees for last Wednesday’s Qs, and here won in 1:54, brushing from last to the lead before the three-quarters and then finishing out in :27.1. One of four winners for the team of driver Matt Kakaley and trainer Travis Alexander, Desperate Man will be starting in the first preliminary of the MGM Borgata Series at Yonkers on Monday.

Amidst the many top racers in action on Wednesday, nobody went faster than the sophomore maiden pacing filly Bettor’s Ticket (Bettor’s Wish), who was ready for a 1:53.4 — :55.3 – :27.2 move for trainer Cory Stratton. Bettor’s Ticket, one of four winners on the day for driver Jason Bartlett, is eligible to her grouping in the Weiss Series, which begins here on April 12.

Fastest winners in the other three-year-old sectors were trotting filly My Debt Collector (Chapter Seven), just a head off as the favorite in the New York Sire Stakes Championship last year, and here winning in 1:56.4 under the handling of Ridge Warren; pacing colt RJs Red Devil, an engine winner in 1:54.4 – :28 for Kakaley/Alexander after a third in the Massachusetts Championship in his last 2024 outing; and diamondgaitedcolt Frank Leahy, a Keystone Classic winner last year and on Wednesday trotted out his first charted line of 2025 in :27.4 to complete a 1:55.4 success with Bartlett in the sulky.

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

From the PHHA / Pocono Downs