Weiss Series trotters and pacers do battle

WILKES-BARRE, PA – Four Sixes, a Six Pack colt, is undefeated in three 2024 starts after recording a 1:55 victory in one of four $20,000 first-round prelims of the Bobby Weiss Series for three-year-old harness racing trotting males on as nice a Monday afternoon (April 8) as you could want at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.

Four Sixes was directed to the front by driver Tyler Buter as the field passed under the wire the first time and coasted home to a 3¾ length victory for trainer Tom Loughry Jr. and Lone Wolf Stable.

FOUR SIXES REPLAY

The 1:55 mile was a new mark for the winner, and it tied him for Weiss speed honors with a Chapter Seven colt also posting a lifetime best, Victor Laszlo (named after the freedom fighter in the movie Casablanca who was married to Ingrid Bergman). Victor Laszlo set the pace and then held off onrushing Usain Hanover by half a length for driver Mark MacDonald, trainer Ray Schnittker, and the partnership of Schnittker Arnold, Paul Bordogna, Ted Gewertz, and Arden Homestead Stable.

VICTOR LASZLO REPLAY

Victor Laszlo trotted to his second victory in as many seasonal starts; so, did Blackhawk Zette, a Cantab Hall colt who recorded a lifetime best of 1:55.4 while just edging out Green Pastures by a nose for driver Matt Kakaley, trainer Robert Baggitt Jr., and owner J L Sadowsky LLC.

BLACKHAWK ZETTE REPLAY

The final Weiss cut was the only one not to be won by the favorite (on a Pocono card that yielded eleven chalk winners in fifteen contests), and the only Weiss race where the winner did not take a mark. The race boiled down to trainees of the co-owners of 2005 Hambletonian winner Vivid Photo, Todd Schadel and Roger Hammer, and it was the Schadel trainee, the Tactical Landing gelding Shermont prevailing in 1:57.1 for Babyshine Hanover Stable LLC. Tyler Buter recorded his second Weiss win of the day behind the successful seasonal debutant.

SHERMONT REPLAY

There were also seven $9000 divisions of the second leg of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series for horses today carrying a base tag of $12,500, and only the two repeat winners, Fredneck (driver George Napolitano Jr., new mark of 1:53.1) and My Mind Is Madeup (Braxten Boyd, 1:53.3), were claimed among the septet of horses who paraded back to Victory Lane after GOC races.

FREDNECK REPLAY

Matt Kakaley drove two series winners, adding to his Weiss win to tie him for day’s driving honors with Braxten Boyd: Seal O’Neill (1:53.4) and Cheyenne Reijane (1:53, and remarkable in that the meet’s leading driver anywhere rarely pays $98.40 to win). Other Game Of Claims winners were Team Mac (Jim Pantaleano, the fastest GOC time of 1:52.3 for a new mark), Record Year (Simon Allard, 1:53.1), and Buckeye Emery (Anthony Napolitano, 1:54).

CHEYENNE REIJANE REPLAY

The upturn in mercury surely aided the Captaintreacherous gelding De Los Cielos Deo to tie for the fastest win at the meet with a 1:51.1 score. The eight-year-old looked like the colt who was briefly near the top of his class in his freshman campaign, pacing strongly for driver Anthony Napolitano and trainer/driver Besim Odza. And if you were really impressed with De Los Cielos Deo – he’s entered right back for a $30,000 tag on the Saturday card!

DE LOS CIELO DEO REPLAY

Sixteen races are on tap for Tuesday’s 1 p.m. program, with six divisions of the opening leg of the Weiss for sophomore filly trotters, each for $20,000, and a like number of $17,500 events for the second round of the Game Of Claims Trot for horses bearing a $27,500 price tag. Free Pocono programs are at www.phha,org.

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

From the PHHA / Pocono Downs