With the temperature at 55 degrees at post time for Tuesday’s $15,500 featured mares pace at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, investing at the win window on a horse named The Summer Wind might have seemed a bit of a mercurial stretch but that 5-1 shot got the lead in the last three strides to post a nose triumph in 1:52.2.
Jim Marohn, Jr. had the daughter of Rocknroll Hanover placed just behind an early fight behind the two favourites, Request For Parole and Life Is A Beach, and kept to the inside throughout. When Life Is A Beach moved outside to challenge the pacesetting Request For Parole in the stretch drive, The Summer Wind was able to utilize the famed Pocono Pike, and Marohn was able to rally her up the inside in the last few steps to edge out Life Is A Beach, with All About Kisses a closing third as Request For Parole faded to fourth.
Greg White trains the career winner of over $310,000 for owners Charles Rowe and Lewis Whitaker.
The weekend cards for Saturday and Sunday at The Downs, which serve as “the start of the racing week” under the current Saturday through Tuesday schedule at the mountain oval, promise some fine racing.
On Saturday, Bigtown Hero, whose 1:48.1 win here last Saturday is the fastest mile in North American harness racing so far in 2016, returns in the $25,000 winners-over pace slotted for Race 10, and this horse is noted for being able to hold a “winning grove” an extended period of time when he’s in top form. Aslan, a bang-up second to the “Hero” last week, and Mcardles Lightning, in razor-sharp form both here and at The Meadowlands lately, figure to be his chief opposition.
On Sunday, the Pennsylvania All-Stars series returns with three $30,000 divisions in races six, eight, and ten for top state-bred three-year-old pacing colts.
The most-watched division should be the first one, matching as it does The Catamount Kid, who beat out every colt in last week’s $561,500 Pennsylvania Classic that wasn’t trained by a person named Burke (he was fourth behind the powerhouse stable’s 1-2-3 finish), will do battle with Ideal Jimmy, last year’s Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship winner who is due for some improved racing luck in his third start of the season.
(PHHA/Pocono)