Wilkes-Barre, PA – The 2026 racing season got underway on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 14) at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, and with the temperatures in the 40s (balmy for this time of year in northeast Pennsylvania), excellent speed standards were achieved over a well-groomed oval.
Three weeks ago, at The Meadowlands, Resolve To Win was third at 5-2 in the same race as Ultion Face S, who was fourth at 51-1; last week Resolve To Win faded late at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, while Ultion Face S went wire-to-wire at Yonkers.
In Pocono’s $27,500 fast-class handicap trot Saturday, the long-memoried got a nice 5-1 price on the Resolve gelding Resolve To Win, who sat on the back of 1-5 chalk Ultion Face S in fractions of :27, :56, and 1:24.3, then moved at head stretch and trotted away in 1:53.1. Brett Beckwith handled the winner of $359,096 for trainer Enrico Robinson and owner Pollack Racing LLC.
In the $27,500 featured pace, it looked for a while like the similar situation as in the trot might be developing, as two Per Engblom trainees raced 1-2, with heavy favorite Pinny Tiger A on the lead coming into the lane, and 8-1 Lou Hill – who had defeated Pinny Tiger A at The Meadowlands in his last race, at the end of 2025 – enjoying the golden chair. But Pinny Tiger A, who made two moves early (:27.4, :56) to control the tempo after a sharp 1:50.4 win at The Meadows in his 2026 bow, was equal to the challenge, powering home in :54.2 – :26.4 to reduce his mark to 1:50.2. Jason Bartlett was in the sulky for the winner, who ran his Stateside record to 9-7-2-0 for Engblom and Elite Harness Racing LLC.
Trainer Brandon Presto, the top trainer at The Meadows, loaded a trailer with six horses to compete in the $15,000 first round preliminaries of the Game to Claim Pacing Series for horses base-tagged at $25,000. He won with three of them – but will head back westward with none of the three, as the trio were part of the nine horses haltered for a combined $225,000 in this hectic claiming series.
The three Presto horses, all driven by George Napolitano Jr. for owner Rocco Stebbins, won the three fastest divisions. Quickest time was the 1:51.3 posted by the Captaintreacherous gelding Ilderton AM, who caught pacesetter Supplemental Fee by a nose – a week after Stebbins/Presto claimed him. The Custard The Dragon gelding Rum N Raisins posted a new mark of 1:51.4 in his section, while the Sweet Lou gelding Do Mischief succeeded in 1:52.
Also winning and then having to change barns was Dontlikeitleave, an altered son of A Rocknroll Dance who nipped Whiskey Breath by the slimmest of margins in 1:52.2 for Team Stratton, driver Jordan and trainer Cory, and Caldwell Marnie Racing LLC (the successful claimants of Do Mischief). Getting the luxury of returning to “familiar surroundings” was the Check Six gelding Six Again, a 1:52.2 winner for driver Matt Kakaley and owner Stacey Currie; “familiar surroundings” is a relative term here, as Six Again had just come to trainer Crit Walsh before this race.
Jason Bartlett, who will be picking up his 2025 Driver of the Year trophy in Florida next weekend, had four winners in all, three for Per Engblom; George Napolitano Jr. and Brandon Presto had their mutual triples as noted; and Beckwith had a trio of winner’s circle visits as well, two trained by Joe Bongiorno.
Pocono opens the season with the basic schedule it will follow almost the entire year – racing on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at 1 p.m. (ET) – and the next card on Monday will have a $15,500 pace for developing horses. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.