from the PHHA/Pocono
Wilkes-Barre PA — The chalk was perfect Sunday night (May 3) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in three divisions of a $96,000 Pennsylvania All-Stars event for 3-year-old trotting fillies.
Curtis Salonick photo
Sky Hanover won her PA All-Stars division in a time of 1:56.1.
First up was Focus On Me, a daughter of SJ’s Caviar who is now perfect in two seasonal starts after rallying from the pocket into a :28.1 last quarter to catch pacesetting Fly Angel Fly by a neck while taking a race mark of 1:56.4. Dan Rawlings handled the driving for trainer Rick Beinhauer, and Rick and his wife Regina both own and bred the promising filly.
Livininthefastlane, 2-3 in the two weeks of the Breeders Crown last year, surely lived up to her name in her seasonal debut, making an early move to the lead and storming home in :27.3 to post a 1:54 clocking that missed her 2-year-old record by a tick. The daughter of Donato Hanover races for Team Orange Crush, trainer Julie Miller and driver/husband Andy, and the well-known ownership triumvirate of Marvin Katz, Al Libfeld and Sam Goldband.
The “Crushers” were right back in Pocono’s Victory Lane with another daughter of Donato Hanover as Sky Hanover, now undefeated in four seasonal outings, had to survive the first-over grind in withstanding the horse on her back, Big Barb, by a half-length in 1:56.1. Sky Hanover is owned by the Andy Miller Stable Inc., Little E LLC, Banyan Farms and Westminster Road LLC.