Wilkes-Barre, PA — P L Leeroy, the only double winner in the first two preliminaries in his sector of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, couldn’t complete a sweep of his prelims on Sunday afternoon in one of 10 $12,500 divisions for horses priced at $20,000. Instead, he was joined by his conqueror Mister Daytona N and four other horses as two-time victors as their group’s preliminaries ended a week before their $25,000 final.

P L Leeroy set the pace, but Mister Daytona N sat right on his back then caught him up the inside in 1:55.2 as the entire field of seven was separated by a mere two lengths. The first two horses had both been claimed out of their first two legs — P L Leeroy did get that ”consecutive triple” as he was one of five horses on the day claimed for the $20,000 third-leg tag, while Mister Daytona N got to stay with owner-trainer Christen Pantaleano and driver Jim Pantaleano.

Mister Daytona N grittily held off a bevy of late pursuers in his Game Of Claims preliminary split. Curtis Salonick photo.

Only two of Sunday’s 10 winners were claimed, and both had previous series wins, but one of them was not even guaranteed a spot in the final by way of his second win. That would be Busboy Hanover (1:55.4, driver George Napolitano Jr.), who skipped a leg and thus was beaten out in the point totals by horses with a win, a second-place finish and another check-earning prelim effort, but still could get in if someone ahead of him does not declare. The same applies to third-leg winners Mariner Seelster (1:54.1, Matt Kakaley) and Vasari N (1:54.3, Jim Pantaleano), who also skipped a leg.

The other horse earning his second Game Of Claims win and being claimed was Make Some Waves (1:54.2, Simon Allard). Other Sunday winners were Perkins (1:54.3, Pantaleano), Classified Material (1:54, Tyler Buter), Intrigued Again (1:56, George Napolitano Jr.), Kept Under Wraps (1:56.1, Braxten Boyd), and Droptherakefreddy (1:53.4 for the fastest series win, Allard).

Simon Allard wound up as the day’s top driver with five victories.

The March preliminaries in the Game Of Claims series come to an end on Monday’s (March 20) 1 p.m. card, with five $7,500 divisions of horses entered for an $11,000 tag; with no horse winning twice in the preliminaries, this action will be wide open ahead of next Monday’s (March 27) $15,000 final for this group. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available via the PHHA website.