To modify a southern expression to its current 'home,' trainer Brian Brown is 'hotter’n a two-dollar Pennsylvania pistol on a Saturday night.'
Brown, trainer of 2014 divisional and Jugette champion Colors A Virgin and a resident of Delaware, Ohio, may be having himself a two-day party late this September at the famed half-miler, as he already has five different Pennsylvania Sires Stakes-winning three-year-old pacing horses, three fillies and now the two colts who continued the hot trainer’s winning ways Saturday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, being among the four winners in the $226,168 first leg of their Sires Stakes action.
As the track turned 'sloppy' for the fifth race Sires Stakes division (Pocono is about 150 miles northeast of Baltimore as the crow flies, and the Preakness rain started about two hours before the storms hit northeast PA), Rise Up Now remained undefeated in five outings this year, tucking in the pocket down the back and then catching leader Blood Brother in the stretch to post a one and a half length victory in 1:51.3 over a newly-christened “sloppy” track. Blood Brother had snapped off splits of :26.1, :55.3, and 1:22.2, but the :53 usage in the odd-numbered quarters did not allow him to hold off the Somebeachsomewhere gelding and driver Simon Allard, who piloted the Brown trainee for King McNamara of Florida, the only non-Buckeye in the ownership group which includes the Strollin Stable, William Robinson, and Country Club Acres.
Brown is now two-for-two seasonally with the Well Said colt Lost For Words, who reclaimed the lead down the backstretch, opened up four lengths turning for home, then held off the late charge of the game little Allbeef N Nobull to win by one and a half lengths in 1:51.4 in the night’s second division, when the track was still “fast.” Lost For Words, a finalist in both the Governor's Cup and Breeders Crown last year, was driven by Jim Morrill Jr. for the three Ohioans who share in Rise Up Now’s ownership and another Buckeye, Richard Lombardo.
For years Brown has done very well in the Pennsylvania program, but this year his numbers are only slightly short of unbelievable. He’s perfect in five Pocono starts, and at The Meadows he sports a 13-9-3-0 tally, for a Keystone State total of 18-14-3-0, which produces a mind-boggling state UTR of .870!
McArdles Lightning teamed with driver Anthony Napolitano to post a 6-1 upset in taking the first division, coming from last at the half in the seven-horse field and blitzing his own back two quarters in :54.2 to equal his lifetime mark of 1:51. Steve Elliott conditions the McArdle ridgling (double thoroughbred Triple Crown race winner American Pharoah is also a ridgling) for the Lightning Stable.
In the final Sires Stakes heat, North America Cup eligible Wakizashi Hanover was a pocket rocket in catching last year’s two-year-old Sires Stakes champion, Yankee Bounty, by one and a quarter lengths, with the time on the sloppy track 1:52. Yankee Bounty overcame the outside “eight-ball” to post splits of :27, :57, and 1:24.4, but “Wakizashi,” a Dragon Again gelding, was relentless and gained into the :27.1 kicker for trainer Joann Looney-King and the Tri County Stable of Nova Scotia. Driver Jim Morrill Jr. joined trainer Brown as a double winner in the Sires Stakes races.
Also on the Pocono Saturday card were two $30,000 Open events, one for each gait, which were carded in anticipation of next Sunday’s $150,000 Invitationals to be raced at the other track that Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association services, Harrah’s Philadelphia.
Last year’s divisional champion Classic Martine will have an interesting decision to make about “trying the boys” after taking the $30,000 Open Trot by three and a half lengths in 1:53.1 on a fast track for driver George Napolitano Jr. and trainer Chris Oakes. The daughter of Classic Photo, owned by Hauser Brothers Racing Enterprises, Susan Oakes, Conrad Zurich, and Ed Gold, made the lead in :27.3, “stole” a :30-second second quarter, and then dashed home in successive :27.4 panels to defeat Classicality, with 2014 U.S. Trotter of the Year Shake It Cerry coming from seventh at the half to claim third, another length behind.
On the pacing side, Van Rose Memorial winner Domethatagain and second-place Alexas Jackpot met again, but this time, two weeks later, the post position advantage was reversed (1-4, respectively, in the Rose to 8-3 Saturday), as was the result, with Alexas Jackpot winning in 1:49.3 in the off going. Domethatagain motored to the top in :26 flat from his next-to-outside starting berth Saturday, but Alexas Jackpot was put on the move soon thereafter by George Napolitano Jr., who took both Opens, and posted splits of :54.1 and 1:21.4 en route to the one and a quarter length triumph. Trainer Marty Fine shares ownership of the winner with the Highland Thoroughbred Farm of Ontario.
The week’s racing comes to an end at Pocono on Sunday night with four $20,000 divisions of the first leg of the Pennsylvania Stallion Series for the three-year-old colts and geldings. Many horses holding promise of developing into good horses are in the Stallion events; one of the more promising is Gallic Beach, making his first start of the year but showing a half-length loss in 1:50.2 at Lexington last fall. He’s a son of Somebeachsomewhere out of Western Gallie, a daughter of Western Hanover whose dam is Galleria and whose 'SBSW' half-sister is double Breeders Crown elim winner Galliebythebeach.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono)