from the PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes Barre, PA — The Napolitano brothers, Anthony and George, accounted for both divisions of the featured $16,000 trot at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, the first Monday card of the year, after the pair had both won four races at the mountain oval on Sunday night.

Anthony was first to Victory Lane in the conditioned events, putting a new mark of 1:55.4 on the Muscle Mass stallion Mass Balance after rallying him from the pocket into a :57.2 half to win by a nose over the late-charging Lindylicious. Andrew Harris, who trained three of Anthony’s four winners on Sunday, also conditions the winner of $143,196 for Synerco Ventures Inc.

Big brother George then captured the other feature section with the Muscles Yankee mare Catch All, who was making her first start of the year but still reduced her mark to 1:56.3. The Paul Fusco trainee, owned by Howard Jacobs, made every pole a winning one in turning back Barnaby Rudge by 1-1/4 lengths. Catch All was also the eighth straight favorite to win on the Monday Pocono card, after the chalk lost out in the first three.

Tuesday’s Pocono program is headed by trotting action in the Bobby Weiss Series, with the females going in their second preliminary leg, and the males seeing their first Weiss action. The $15,000 purses await the distaffs in races three, five, and 12, while the boys will go for the same money in races seven, nine, and 11.