Wilkes-Barre, PA — The fast-class veterans headed the Saturday afternoon (October 5) card at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, with an $18,500 race carded on each gait and both decided by a neck margin on a day when many features required the use of the photo finish camera.
On the pace, the Sportswriter gelding Big Skewy N (George Napolitano Jr.), in his initial Stateside campaign, showed himself to be in career form by authoring a new mark of 1:48.3. Napolitano Jr., who had a big day with five visits to Victory Lane, moved after a :26.3 quarter and hustled the Scott Blackler-conditioned horse to the lead in front of the stands around early pacesetter Carabao A (Anthony Napolitano). That one stayed close in the two-hole during splits of :53.3 and 1:21.1 and took a big shot in the lane, but “Skewy” was equal to his challenge, winning for Arrhythmic LLC, moving his bankroll to $115,420 for the year and $207,742 lifetime.
On the trot, owner Vincent Campolong recently assumed the role of trainer for the Swan For All mare Swans Eye (Braxten Boyd), and the distaff made his trainer’s first-ever conditioning success a memorable one by warding off the late charge of favored Kinnder Thinktwice (Tyler Buter) to post a 1:53 victory. The winner set fractions of :27.1, :56.2, and 1:24.4 for driver Braxten Boyd then held gamely to the wire, adding this victory at Pocono to recent wins at Tioga and The Meadowlands as she pushed her current run to three straight.
There were also three $17,000 races for developing horses. Two of them were on the trot; in the pacing contest, the Stay Hungry three-year-old gelding De La Hoya Hanover (Simon Allard), who won his Stallion Series Championship, has now taken three of his last four races, working to grab control of the racetrack early and then keeping pocket sitting chalk Southwind Celsius (A. Napolitano) safely away late while winning in 1:51.4 by the popular margin of a neck. Allard drove for trainer Joe Bongiorno and the partnership of Jennifer Bongiorno Stable LLC, Robert Weinstein, and Barbara Bongiorno Stable LLC.
Last week Dejerate Hanover (G. Napolitano Jr.) set the pace and held off Pedal On Metal (A. Napolitano) to record his seventh straight win; this week the roles were reversed, with “Pedal” on the lead and the streaker the stretch challenger, but the result was the same: the International Moni sophomore gelding Dejerate Hanover recorded his eighth consecutive victory, here by a head in 1:53.3. George Napolitano Jr. got just enough out of the Ron Burke trainee to keep the win streak going for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, FAC Racing LLC, and Yannick Gingras.
Parola Hanover (Boyd) made a big backstretch move to go by Chef Rocco (Allard), hard-used to get the early lead, then kept that resilient rival a neck away at the finish to lower his mark to 1:54.1 in the other sub feature trot. The son of Bar Hopping is trained by David Wiest and owned by the partnership of David Wiest Stables LLC, Pamela Kimmel, and James Rappold.
In the $16,500 claiming handicap for high-priced horses, the Sweet Lou gelding Lunar (G. Napolitano Jr.) made a quick brush to the top before the far turn, then stayed clear under active encouragement to record a 1:50.3 victory. William Hartt owns the winner, who was the second successful collaboration of the day for driver Napolitano Jr. and trainer Dean Eckley.
Pocono will be racing this Monday and Tuesday afternoon, starting at 1 p.m. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.