Wilkes-Barre, PA — Driver Anthony Napolitano guided six winners on the Saturday (July 20) afternoon card at Pocono Downs at Mohegan, Pennsylvania, and combined with trainer Lance Hudson, owner William Hartt and the photo finish camera for the two success stories of the afternoon’s $17,000 trotting features.
The quicker of the feature winners was the Helpisontheway mare Wild Way, who found top position at several points in the mile and caught favored tempo setter Purple Lord (Marcus Miller) by a half-length in 1:54.4 Wild Way raced into a good forward inside spot early, was able to back out to the two-wide tier down the back, then had enough time swinging wide off the final turn to wear down the chalk nearing the wire.
The Swan For All gelding Energysource moved to the lead in front of the stands and maintained an advantage to the wire in the other headline event, though pocket-sitting favorite Lava Field (George Napolitano Jr.) rallied late to narrow the winning margin to a nose. Energysource completed his mile in 1:55.
In the last two weeks’ $16,500 claiming handicap for the top-priced pacers at the Downs, Imaginary Line (Jim Marohn Jr.) had caught Shoobee Doo A in running a win skein to six, but the early mix was different this time, with Shoobee Doo A here holding on grittily for a 1:51.3 triumph over Imaginary Line, who had to try to rally from third-in this week but missed by three-quarters of a length. Shoobee Doo A was guided by George Napolitano Jr.; the connections of the first two finishers lost their horses via the claiming box for a combined total of $77,000, on a day where nine horses switched surroundings for $234,000.
Pennsylvania-sired two-year-old pacing fillies invade The Downs double-digit divisions deep for Sunday’s 6 p.m. card, with three Sire Stakes cuts and seven Stallion Series sections. Papi Grad will likely draw the bulk of the attention off of two consecutive 10-1/4 length triumphs in 1:51.1f while facing stakes competition. There will also be a double carryover into the last race’s Hi-5 wager. Free Pocono programs are or will be available at www.phha.org.