Wilkes-Barre, PA — Believer, the even-money favorite in Tuesday’s (June 14) $12,500 featured trot at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, overcame being hung three-wide to a :27.2 quarter and took a new mark of 1:53.4.

Braxten Boyd drove the son of Cantab Hall with aggression, but found others to his left with the same idea. Believer finally cleared to the lead early in the homestretch after that tough opener, and didn’t let up a bit with middle fractions of :55.4 and 1:24.3. In the stretch, Vic’s Winner proved to be the only major danger, but Boyd kept Believer together to hit the finish line a neck ahead of the challenger, pushing his earnings to $153,246 for trainer Randy Taft and Mali Norbye.

Believer (inside) preserved the lead and captured the Tuesday feature at Pocono. Curtis Salonick photo.

Tyler Buter won the last race of the day to end with three victories; George and Anthony Napolitano joined Marcus Miller in posting doubles. George Napolitano Jr. has taken the lead in the Pocono driving standings with a 108-104 edge over Matt Kakaley; the other three multiple winners on Tuesday are among the track’s leading half-dozen drivers. Gilbert Garcia-Herrera sent out a winner to boost his lead to 22 training wins, two ahead of Ron Burke and Darren Taneyhill.

Pocono will host 14 qualifiers for 2-year-olds on Wednesday morning (June 15), starting at 10 a.m. The next pari-mutuel action at the mountain oval will be on Saturday (June 18) at 1:30 p.m.; on Sunday (June 19), Pennsylvania 3-year-old trotting fillies come to town for the third round of their preliminary Sire Stakes action, with all four winners in the first two legs – Manon, Dreamonhigh, Samosa, and Palermo Hanover – set to race in one of two $67,991 divisions on the 5 p.m. card. Program pages will be available on the PHHA website.