Wilkes-Barre, PA — Incommunicado was backed down to 1-5 upon coming to Pocono for the $20,000 featured fast-class trot on Sunday evening, but he had to work hard to catch Yanks Dugout by a nose in 1:55.2 over a sloppy oval.

Incommunicado (1) comes up the inside to just catch Yanks Dugout (5) in the Sunday feature at Pocono. Curtis Salonick Photo

The successful Chapter Seven gelding took a hesitant step towards the start from the rail, but it cost him little in positioning as Yanks Dugout was the only quick leaver, with Incommunicado maintaining the pocket in a :28.2 opener. However, Yanks Dugout, a 31% career winner, and driver Simon Allard were able to get away with midfractions of :59.1 and 1:28 (in comparison, a “nw1600L5” trot earlier had middle splits of  :58.2 and 1:27.4).

The price of trotting went up dramatically in the final quarter, with Yanks Dugout motoring home in :27.2 but still not able to hold off the winner by the slimmest possible margin. Incommunicado, a winner of $630,257 and a winner of the Dexter Cup and the Massachusetts stakes championship at two and three, is trained by Åke Svanstedt for the ownership group of Knutsson Trotting Inc., Little E LLC, Arthur Geiger, and David Stolz.

In addition to driving the feature winner, “George Nap” was top among all Pocono drivers Sunday with four victories.

Pennsylvania All-Stars races for two-year-olds will highlight the racing action for Monday and Tuesday’s 1 p.m. cards, with pacing colts topping the bill on Monday and trotting fillies going to the gate on Tuesday. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available at https://www.phha.org/downsmsppps.html.