by PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — The curtain rings down on the 2017 season of speed at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Saturday evening (Nov. 25), with the night’s card honoring two of the racetrack’s stars of the campaign – driver George Napolitano Jr. and pacer Maxdaddy Blue Chip.

Napolitano will win his record 11th dashwinning crown at Pocono, and his sixth in a row, entering the final night with a lead of over 70 against his nearest rivals. Napolitano also leading the driving colony at Harrah’s Philadelphia and was the 2010 North American dashwinning champion, currently sits second in the U.S./Canada contest in 2017 behind frontrunner Aaron Merriman, who is poised to become only the fourth driver to win over 1,000 races in a season.

Maxdaddy Blue Chip, a 5-year-old Sportswriter gelding, was selected Pocono’s Pacer of the Year on the basis of five victories against some of the highest-end horses competing at the northeast Pennsylvania oval, where he also established his personal best of 1:49.1. However, if he is to achieve a sixth Pocono victory with a win in Saturday’s $25,000 handicap pacing feature for driver Tom Jackson, he’ll have to overcome the outside post eight and some very talented opposition, including Bit Of A Legend N, a $1.9M career winner who will be starting just inside him off an Open win at Yonkers, with Jordan Stratton listed for sulky action.

The anticipation that is part and parcel of a horseman’s – and a racetrack’s – life as they prepare in the off-season for the next year’s racing will be ratcheted a bit higher than normal at The Downs over the winter, as in 2018, Pocono will be proud to host for the third time the $6 million Breeders Crown Championship Series in the fall.