Wilkes-Barre, PA — In a competitive $24,000 featured pace for mares Sunday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono – so competitive that, in a five-horse field, nobody finished worse than a dead heat for fourth – Crazy Cute won for the second time in three starts in this company, pacing her mile in 1:52.

Crazy Cute (#2) rallied up the Pocono Pike to narrowly prevail in Sunday’s featured distaff pace at the mountain oval. Curtis Salonick photo.

The Art Major mare may have won the race when she strung favorite April Ava out to get the lead before the :27 quarter. April Ava set middle fractions of :56 and 1:24.3, with Bye Bye Felicia a hounding first-over presence. In the stretch, the track’s leading driver George Napolitano Jr. was able to direct Crazy Cute to the Pocono Pike and go on to a head victory over a game Bye Bye Felicia, with April Ava only a neck away from repeating. American Delight N, from second-over, and Pansy’s Image, who sat in and had no clearance in the lane, tied for fourth, another 1-1/2 lengths back.

Trainer Gilbert Garcia-Herrera shares ownership of the winner of $251,915 with Barbara Arnstine. Garcia-Herrera went on to sweep the late double by winning with Keystone Steam, driven by Jim Marohn Jr.

Matt Kakaley had four wins on the card; 21-year-old Braxten Boyd brought three horses home first.

Younger horses will be featured in a trio of $13,000 contests on Pocono’s Monday (Sept. 20) card; post time is 12:30 p.m. Program pages are available at the PHHA website.