from the PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — Driver Brett Miller won with two daughters of Somebeachsomewhere as five divisions of a $150,000 Pennsylvania All-Stars event for state-sired 2-year-old pacing fillies were held over a sloppy track on Tuesday (June 30) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

Curtis Salonick photo

Heels On The Beach was a 1:53.2 winner for Brett Miller.

Brett Miller rallied Heels On The Beach (Somebeachsomewhere-Red High Heels) out of the pocket and into a :28.2 final quarter to take the fastest division in 1:53.2 by 1-1/2 lengths for trainer Larry Remmen and owner Bradley Grant.

Miller then handled the homebred Pure Country (Somebeachsomewhere-Western Montana) in winning in 1:54.1, with back panels of :55.2–:26.3 after a quarter-move making people sit up and take notice. Jimmy Takter conditions the promising miss for Diamond Creek Racing.

The clocking of 1:54.1, and the winning tactic of quarter-moving, were matched by the Well Said-Graceful Motion filly Eloquent Grace and Yannick Gingras, in triumphing for trainer Ron Burke and the ownership combine of Burke Racing Stable, Ed Gold, Howard Taylor and the J&T Silva Stables.

Well Said then completed a siring double while David Miller completed a driving double behind I Said Diamonds (Well Said-Silksndiamonds), wire-to-wire in 1:54.2–:56 –:27.3 for trainer Chris Oakes and owners Omar Beiler, Dennis Coons, and Susan Oakes.

David Miller’s earlier success came with the only non-favored winner of the quintet, Tipton Teeez (though as the $5.40 second choice she paid less than favored Heels On The Beach’s $6.00). Quarter-moving was again a winning path to Victory Lane, as the Western Terror-Finest Arts miss stepped home in :28 to complete a 1:56.4 package for trainer Brian Brown and owner Jennifer Brown.

Wednesday finds the All-Stars action continuing with seven divisions of 2-year-old trotting fillies going after $210,000. Incredibly for July 1, fully 13 of the trotting misses already show marks in 2:00 or better, most of them in qualifiers, the fastest being the 1:58 of the Donato Hanover filly Womans Will (race 12, post two, driver Andy Miller).

Two other horses to note are Broadway Donna (race 11, post three, driver David Miller), who won a pari-mutuel event in 1:58.2 at Philly, and who is out of a mare who is a full sister to Cooler Schooner, who set her amazing 1:51.3 world record here at Pocono; and the “hunch play,” Kathy Parker (race 10, post one, driver Jimmy Takter), named after the journalist to be installed into the Communicators Hall of Fame this weekend at Goshen.

All-Stars action closes out on the first Friday card of the season at The Downs, with six divisions of freshman colt pacers racing for a bounty of $180,000. Trainer Ron Burke has 14 entrants among the sextet of events, including six horses who show at least two winning lines and have never tasted defeat. Such a wealth of Burke talent will lure the world’s winningest driver, Dave Palone, over to Pocono Friday, where he already has calls in five of the six events.

But the fastest of the 24 entered who have already won in 2:00 or better (four in 1:55 or better) is not a Burke member, but Brooklynite (race three, post two, driver Corey Callahan), a son of Somebeachsomewhere from the Joe Holloway barn who took an overnight at Philly in 1:54.2, matching a mark he first reached in a Meadowlands 2-year-old qualifier.