Wide open final after GOC prelims run

WILKES-BARRE PA – On Tuesday afternoon at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, there were ten $9000 divisions of the third and final preliminary harness racing leg of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series for horses base-tagged this week at $15,000. And of these ten winners, only one of them, Chiefs Beach (Sunshine Beach), has a chance of making the $17,500 series Championship seven days hence – the other nine are ineligible.

Some local rules are needed:

A horse must start in all three preliminaries of a given Game Of Claims Series to qualify for the final; the base claiming price in all GOC pacing series is upped $2500 per week; and the series for those horses who had started out for a base tag of $15,000 had its Championship the day before.

Many horsemen, finding their charges overmatched at the higher level, chose to drop their horses to the lower rung to earn money, and in this final prelim as noted the base price was not different from what they initially had entered for in the higher grouping. This helps to explain why nine of Tuesday’s ten GOC winners had not raced in the lower series’ first leg.

The only winner starting in all of this level’s prelims was Chiefs Beach, who had a fifth and a sixth in his last two outings vs. this kind, but Tuesday utilized a 26.3 backstretch brush to command and won for driver Simon Allard in 1:54.

CHIEFS BEACH REPLAY

Allard had three series winners, as did Tyler Buter (who had four successes in all to tie George Napolitano Jr. at 39 at the top of the Pocono seasonal standings). Among Buter’s trio were Snap Test (1:54.1) and Colonel Bayama (1:54), two horses who won each of the two series starts they made; Colonel Bayama also defeated second-place Stick With Cramer, one of two horses victorious in the first two prelims. Buter’s fastest GOC winner was Team Mac in 1:53.3.

Allard’s other two winners included Angelo in 1:54.3 (in that race Captain Terminator, the other winner in the first two prelims and the only horse claimed in all three legs, was third) and Tin Roof Raider A, who opened the card with a 1:54.1 win.

Braxten Boyd guided five horses home first during the card for day’s honors, including Master Miki (1:55.4) and the fastest GOC winner, Whitecookie (1:53.2). Whitecookie was joined as the only Tuesday winners in their sole series start by Hello Gorgeous (1:55.2, Matt Kakaley); Master Miki paired with Fredneck (1:54, George Napolitano Jr.) to give trainer Geovany Hernandez the only series double in the program’s grouping, and contributed to him being tops for the day with three winners harnessed.

This group has its Championship next Tuesday, and there is a Game Of Claims Series trot in April, but starting with Saturday’s 1 p.m. card, the next at Pocono, the spotlight in series action shifts to sophomores of both gaits and sexes in the Bobby Weiss Series for developing three-year-olds. On Saturday, there will be six $20,000 first prelims for the pacing males, and joining them in the attraction spotlight will be a carryover into the last race High 5 wager. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

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

From the PHHA / Pocono Downs