from the PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — Muscle Hill sired three of the five winners in the $169,415 second round of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes for 2-year-old trotting fillies at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Tuesday night (July 18), including both repeat winners from the first preliminary action at The Meadows.

Curtis Salonick photo

Manchego and Yannick Gingras were 1:54.4 winners.

The fastest of all the winners was a Muscle Hill-Secret Magic miss, Manchego, who pulled from the pocket to take the lead down the backstretch and then went on to be 3-1/2 lengths clear of her closest pursuer at the wire, stepping her back half in :56.3 to tie her mark of 1:54.4 taken at The Meadowlands. Driven by Yannick Gingras and trained by Jimmy Takter for Black Horse Racing, John Fielding, and Herb Liverman, Manchego is now 3-for-3 for purses and unbeaten in five charted lines.

Even though there were four divisions of The Meadows’ Sire Stakes leg, barring a dead-heat there would be a maximum of two repeaters, as besides Manchego the other three western Pennsylvania winners were all gathered together. And it was Vivacious Allie, out of the mare KD Girl, who took her second Sire Stakes victory, improving on her first start, where she was most photogenic by a nose, to win here by 5-1/2 lengths in 1:56.1, trailed by the other two first-round winners, Front Circle (second) and Special Hill (third). David Miller guided the Åke Svanstedt-trained filly home in :57.1–:28.2 for the easy triumph for owner Hans Enggren.

The other daughter of Muscle Hill visiting Victory Lane was Lily Stride, out of the mare Stirling Volo, who won in 1:57.2 after getting to the half in 1:00. This division was supposed to be a meeting of two Pennsylvania All-Stars winners who skipped the Sires’ first leg, Lily Stride and Phaetosive, but the latter came up sick, with the former taking full advantage for driver Tim Tetrick, trainer Mark Harder, and owners Emilio and Maria Rosati.

David Miller added a second wins in Tuesday’s Sires competition when he piloted the Cantab Hall-Up Front Laura gray filly Tiffany’s Flash to a neck mark of 1:57.1, going wire-to-wire and coming home in :57.3 to turn back pocket-sitter Swing It Cathy by a half-length. Linda Toscano conditions the winner for R-And-I Farms LLC, Camelot Stable Inc., and Highland Green Farms.

Every Miller on the Tuesday Pocono card besides David were 1-2 in the final Sires division, as Andy and Julie Miller defeated Marcus and Erv Miller by a length when Seviyorum and Andy came off a first-over Top Expectations and Marcus’ back to win in 1:55.4. The Donato Hanover-Armbro Domino miss is owned by breeder Story Inc. along with the Andy Miller Stable Inc.