Weiss Series highlights Pocono raceweek

WILKES-BARRE PA – This coming racing week at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, each of the four harness racing cards will present a $50,000 Championship race in the Bobby Weiss Series for developing three-year-olds. Each day except Sunday will also feature a $20,000 consolation for Weiss competitors who did not earn enough points to secure a place in the Championship.

Named after the retired Pocono trackman who helped make the local racing surface into one of the best in North American racing, the Weiss series each staged three preliminary legs for up-and-coming sophomores, and after many competitive races in each division in each week, the best will get to go for the big money this week.

Saturday’s Championship is for three-year-old pacing colts, with the Heston Blue Chip colt All Class the early favorite. All Class won both his Weiss prelims, last week coming home in :26.3 against the wind and under a hold, and he will look to keep his lifetime record unblemished as Jason Bartlett will be behind him as he starts from post six. In this group, there were no fewer than seven different preliminary winners, and everybody will be primed to get after a big share of the big money.

Sunday’s headliner will be for three-year-old trotting colts, and Bestfriend Volo (Walner) has been given the favorite’s mantle as he begins from starting slot three for driver Tyler Buter. A gelding, Bestfriend Volo won handily in the first two Weiss prelims for his group, then took last week off. Moni Book (post four, driver Marcus Miller) also was a double winner in the preliminaries.

The three-year-old pacing fillies going postward on Monday will have to contend with the Betting Line filly C Is For Cookie, the only Weiss competitor to have visited Victory Lane after all three weeks of Weiss prelim action. Scott Zeron hasn’t had to really ask his filly, who starts from the rail, for maximum effort yet, but that question may come on Monday as C Is For Cookie faces five other Weiss winners, including double prelim winner Relentless Julie.

In Tuesday’s trotting filly ranks, the Walner filly Kaddari, a $375,000 yearling, has made only two lifetime starts, with both being clear victories in the Weiss, and she will have the advantage of beginning from the rail for Team Melander. A Good Chardonnay (Walner) and Quite Fast each won two prelims in this division, but they are burdened here with posts six and seven, respectively. As much as any horse, sire Walner was the “big story” in this grouping, as he fathered seven of the eight Weiss prelim winners.

Post times for this week’s cards will be 1 p.m. on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday and 6 p.m. on Sunday, with the $50,000 Weiss Championships slotted for race ten during each day’s fourteen-race card. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available here.

From the PHHA / Pocono