Only one trainer at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono has sent out more than one winner paying $50 or more this season. Can you guess who it is?
Here’s a hint: The $57 winner he conditioned to victory in Saturday night’s $25,000 featured pace at The Downs was his 5,951st successful trainee this decade.
For the third time this year, trainer Ron Burke and driver Matt Kakaley posted a big upset at the mountain oval, the one Saturday coming with Allbeef N Nobull in 1:49.2, a lifetime-best for the McArdle gelding who started his career at the Martinsville Illinois Fair and over the last two years has built his bankroll to $248,642.
Odds-on favourite Luck Be Withyou hustled away to the lead, with McArdles Lightning keeping the hole closed behind him, forcing Mach It So to be parked at the :25.4 quarter and almost to the three-eighths for command, whereupon Luck Be Withyou retook the top by the :54 half. McArdles Lightning then entered the fray and went head-to-head with the leader down the backstretch, the two virtually inseparable at the 1:20.4 third quarter mark.
Kakaley and Allbeef N Nobull were perfectly positioned in fourth behind the breakneck pace, and they tipped outside midway on the far turn and three-wide headstretch. The withering numbers took their toll on the front-runners, and Allbeef N Nobull was able to pace by late and win by three-quarters of a length. Mach It So came back on in the Pocono Pike for second, with Luck Be Withyou just a neck behind him in third.
The winner has now won four of his last six starts for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Donald Emond, Howard Taylor, and Weaver Bruscemi LLC. As for driver Kakaley, his third bomber ties him with Anthony Napolitano atop the Downs’ stat sheet in that category.
(With files from PHHA/Pocono)