by PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — Before the first race at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Tuesday night (March 20), 13-year-old gelding Must Be The Bunny (post eight) must have looked over to his left, saw 40-1 on the tote board and thought, “This is my kind of spot.”

Curtis Salonick photo

The toteboard-exploding $85.40 win price is old hat to Must Be The Bunny.

Driver Dustin Blumenfeld had to use his horse hard past the quarter for the lead, yielded it to a brusher to sit in the pocket and when space opened up in the stretch, the veteran knew what to do and came up the inside to outpace the rest of the field.

The toteboard-exploding $85.40 win price is old hat to Must Be The Bunny. The last time he won at Pocono was September 25, 2016, and he paid $44.60 that night. A year before that, on May 31, 2015, he returned $122.40 for a $2 win ducat to his scattered Pocono backers. In fact, in Must Be The Bunny’s 10 wins from 2015 to this early point in 2018, seven times he’s paid in double digits, including a $44.80 victory at The Meadowlands on November 21, 2015.

Top purses of the night came in a pair of $15,000 contests for non-winners of four contests, an addition to the Pocono conditioned sheet this season.

In the trotting event, the Lucky Chucky gelding Tour De Lindy was out to just past the three-eighths to get the lead, but he had plenty of trot late, coming home in :27.4 with the mercury reading at 37 degrees to take a new speed badge of 1:55. Marcus Miller handled sulky duties for trainer Lucas Wallin, who is also co-owner with Steve Organ.

The pacing feature winner also put in a personal best mile, with Drinkin Again getting a fine trip and then making the most of it to stop the timer in 1:53.2. Jim Morrill Jr. had the victorious son of Real Artist third on the rail, angled wide before midstretch and was the strongest horse finishing for trainer/driver Phil Jasper.

FINISHING LINES – Next live action at Pocono is Saturday, with Sunday and Tuesday also live nights as the early schedule expands to three nights of racing, all starting at 7 p.m.