from the PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — The photo-finish system at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono stayed hard at work during the $16,000 distaff pacing feature Tuesday night (Nov. 1), as the Well Said sophomore filly I Said Please reduced her mark by a tick to 1:53.1 in defeating Rock Me Baby by a nose, with Eloquent Grace another nose back in third.

Those three formed the outer tier down the backstretch, helped by a tailwind, with Eloquent Grace going to the lead on the far turn, only to be overhauled late by second-over I Said Please, who just did withstand the foe on her back, Rock Me Baby, for driver Andrew McCarthy (one of his two wins on the night), trainer Travis Alexander, and the Fiddler’s Creek Stables LLC, who saw their filly run her earnings to $121,433.

It was just another race at the office for the photo finish operation. The rules officially call for a photo for any race decided by a half-length or less, and in the first eight races six of the margins added up to three noses, a head, a neck, and a half-length.

Windsun Glory became another horse traveling a pattern familiar to Pennsylvania horseplayers — from Ontario to the Ron Burke Stable, then winning at first asking after a layoff — in taking the $15,500 co-featured pace. The sophomore daughter of Mach Three made an early move to command for Matt Kakaley, then stepped home in :55.3 in lowering her mark to 1:51.2 while crossing the six-figure bankroll threshold to $101,886 for Burke Racing Stable Weaver Bruscemi, J&T Silva Stables and Lawrence Karr.

After winning a Breeders Crown race on Saturday night with 17-1 Someomensomewhere, Marcus Miller was reminded that in Pennsylvania he is known as “King of the Longshots,” to which he replied, “I would love to be king of the favorites; that’s my next goal!”

Miller, who had three winners on this card, may have to delay that ambition a trifle if he keeps bringing home horses like Terror Aint A Fool, who won the first race by a nose and paid $59.00, giving young Miller 10 winners of $50 or more at Pocono this year, double his nearest competition in that category.

The horse defeated by a nose in the opener was 31-1 shot Irish Kath N, who was driven by about the only sulky-sitter currently hotter than Miller, Jim Marohn Jr., who captured four races Tuesday to mark the eighth consecutive Pocono card where he’s had multiple wins. He’s now risen to sixth in the Pocono standings, with the three drivers battling for fifth being familiar names if you’ve read all this story — Marcus Miller (112), Jim Marohn Jr. (111), and Andrew McCarthy (110).

Marohn had 35 wins at Pocono during the month of October and 53 in all for the month counting Harrah’s Philadelphia, Freehold, and The Meadowlands.

Marohn’s so hot right now he won a race where he didn’t cross the wire first; his Low Card was caught by a neck by Anwar Hanover, but that horse made the third of his three breaks during the race in the shadow of the wire, putting Marohn and his horse up via the lapped-on break rule.