Wilkes-Barre, PA – Three-year-old male trotters competed in three $17,500 first round preliminaries of their Bobby Weiss Series at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Monday (April 6) afternoon. All three winners were making their second starts of the year, and two were Bar Hopping geldings driven by Tyler Buter, but the fastest was Dilly Hanover, an altered son of International Moni who is undefeated in two career starts.
Unraced at two, Dilly Hanover won his career bow in 1:56.3 last Tuesday, and six days later he came back and lowered his mark to 1:56.1 for driver Braxten Boyd and trainer Emily Bost, the latter co-owner with R K 4 Racing and Bruce James Potter. “Dilly” was out three-eighths until clearing Finn McCool, then got a stern challenge from the pocketsitter through the last quarter, forcing a :28.2 kicker to preserve the victory as the two-holer lapsed very late from gait in his 2026 bow.
The faster of the two Tyler Buter / Bar Hopping success stories was Confident Volo, who rallied from fifth at the stretch call to get home first in 1:57.2. Confident Volo, the heavy favorite, was handled as his name would suggest to remain unbeaten after two starts this campaign for trainer Todd Buter and Oldford Racing LLC.
Phoebus Hanover broke his maiden in his second career start in 1:57.3 in the other Weiss split, surprising the assembled while paying $37.60 to win. Buter sat third on the rail much of the way, then found room between horses, and “Phoebus” came through shining to notch the win for trainer Nifty Norman and his Enzed Racing Stable Inc., co-owner with Dean Lockhart.
Raspalia N (a New Zealand mare named after a plant found only in South Africa and named for a French botanist) stayed unbeaten after six Stateside starts while taking a $17,500 distaff pacing contest in a new mark of 1:51.2. It was a rollercoaster of a trip for the daughter of Johny Rock – parked two-wide from the start to the five-eighths, then blindswitched, then three-wide with then without cover, back to two-wide covered on the turn then again three-deep for the stretch – but Buter had the mare to surmount the hard journey for trainer Agostino Abbatiello and Durrazano Stable LLC.
In all, Tyler Buter, defending driving champion and 2026 leader, won six times during the Monday action at Pocono, tying Brett Beckwith’s one-day seasonal high at the northeast Pennsylvania track. Simon Allard and Braxten Boyd guided two winners apiece. On the training side, “T. Buter” was also the top conditioner of the day, as Todd Buter was the only doubler.
Fillies take over the Weiss Series spotlight on Tuesday’s (April 7) 1 p.m. card at Pocono, with four divisions of trotters and three of pacers contesting their first preliminary round. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.