from the PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — On Monday (July 9), 2-year-old trotting colts have a chance to shine in the stakes spotlight in their PA All-Stars event at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono; on Tuesday (July 10) it is their filly counterparts’ turn to assert their abilities, going in five $30,000 divisions of All-Stars action.

As is the case in the colt event, top stakes barns have multiple entries ready: four fillies will go postward from the stables of Ron Burke, John Butenschoen, and Marcus Melander, giving those three the most 2-year-olds in the two events combined — Melander with eight, Burke with seven, and Butenschoen with six.

Two of the fillies are already winners in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes action, having triumphed on July 3 at The Meadows. The first is in the first All-Stars division, race two, Sonnet Grace, who begins in the middle of a seven-horse collection for trainer-driver Rod Allen. Sonnet Grace drew away in the stretch to take the Sire Stakes contest in 1:58.1, following up on a 2:00.1 win in her debut, also at The Meadows.

The other Sire Stakes winner begins from the middle of the race four seven-horse field: Fate Smiled, going for trainer Ron Burke and driver Matt Kakaley. Fate Smiled was a 1:58, wire-to-wire winner in the Sires contest, stepping home in :57.4-:28.4. Fate Smiled faces an opponent, Fraulein Bucher (post seven, trainer Nancy Johansson, driver Scott Zeron), whose mother, Frau Blucher, is one of only two horses to win $500,000 during her Sire Stakes campaigns at two and three (Wild Honey is the other).

The filly with the fastest clocking among all the divisions, Beautiful Sin, will begin from the rail in race five for trainer Jimmy Takter and driver Yannick Gingras. She has three winning Meadowlands lines as her career product to date, dropping time each start: 1:57.2, 1:56.4, and then 1:56.2.

Mention can be made of Fast Reaction, starting from post seven in an eight-horse race seven. Off a 24-day gap from the races, trainer-driver Rick Beinhauer won a Pennsylvania Stallion Series event at The Meadows in 1:58.1, with her last half in :57.1.

Fifteen misses already show crossing the line first in 2:00 or better among the five divisions of fillies, which will be staged as races two through five and seven. Tuesday’s Pocono racing card begins at 7 p.m.