by John Berry, for Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — Track record holder Panocchio, who scorched the Pompano Park oval in 1:48.3 last semester, makes his fall debut at South Florida’s Winter Capital of Harness Racing in Sunday night’s (Oct. 23) Open Pace.

Skip Smith photo

Panocchio makes his fall debut at Pompano Park on Sunday night.

The 6-year-old outstanding son of No Pan Intended, owned by Emile Johnson Jr. along with trainer Jim Mattison, comes into the action with 42 lifetime wins — half of those at Pompano Park — and $364,928 in career bounty.

So far this season, Panocchio has a 6-7-2 scorecard in 19 starts and comes into the action off of two winning qualifying events after a short vacation prompting trainer Mattison to say, “You know, he races tough every start and I thought it would be good to give him a few weeks off — he deserves it.

“His two qualifiers were fine and Wally (driver Hennessey) just let him do his thing — no stress on him and all on his own.

“He doesn’t like to train much. In fact, a good training mile for him is 2:30!

“He’s been so good to us and part of that, I hope, is that we are good to him, too. My wife Vicki treats him like part of the family — which he is!”

The Sunday program also feature the finals of the Sunshine State Stakes, featuring the top 2- and 3-year-old Florida bred Standardbreds.

In the final for the sophomore trotting fillies, Kevin Kelly’s Goldstar Brianna takes her unblemished record — 12-for-12 — into the event. The daughter of Basil set a lifetime mark in her last start of 1:57.3, despite the fact that the track was termed sloppy as heavy rains pelted the oval. Dan Hennessey trains the filly and brother Wally Hennessey is expected in the bike.

Sunday post time is set at 7:20 p.m. with three carryovers highlighting the card, the largest being more than $3,000 in Pompano Park’s Pentafecta fourth race.