Wilkes-Barre, PA — It took Village Jade two early moves to secure a pocket trip, but she had enough left to go forward a third time late to win the $17,000 featured distaff pace on Monday afternoon (Oct. 10) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

The 4-year-old daughter of Bettor’s Delight, favored at 4-5, took command early, yielded to the onrushing Always B First, then moved out towards the :27.1 quarter, just in front of second choice Better Watch It. Village Jade cleared a second time before yielding to Better Watch It, who took the field through middle fractions of :56 and 1:23.2. The pacesetter and the pocket sitter hooked up in a classic stretch duel, with Village Jade rallying yet again to pass her game rival by a neck in a lifetime best 1:51.

Village Jade collared Better Watch It late to win Monday’s distaff feature at Pocono. Curtis Salonick photo.

The victory was a teaming of Pocono’s leading driver Matt Kakaley and leading trainer Ron Burke, with Village Jade owned by the Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.

George Napolitano Jr. drove four winners on the day, while Anthony Napolitano had three. Matt Kakaley posted two wins to maintain a 220-215 lead over George Napolitano Jr. in the driving standings with just over a month to go in the meet.

Racing returns to Pocono on Tuesday (Oct. 11); post time is 1:30 p.m. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available via the PHHA website.