from the PHAA

Wilkes-Barre, PA — The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono previewed its 51st season of harness racing, which begins this Saturday night, at a Wednesday noontime press gathering for a group of local media whom Downs Vice President of Racing Operations Dale Rapson called “people who have been great in working with us over the years,” citing the press, local horsemen, and Mohegan staffers as major parts of a renaissance which has led, as Rapson noted, “from Pocono being a place you went if your horses wouldn’t do elsewhere” into one of the sport’s North American leaders.

Rapson, starting his 38th season of employment at thenortheast Pennsylvania oval, mentioned the track’s signature cards, Sun StakesSaturday (July 2) and Super Stakes Saturday (August 20), each offering over $2million in purses, along with the inaugural Pennsylvania Classics for thestate’s 3-year-old pacers which will offer $1 million in purses as part of aKentucky Derby Day doubleheader card at The Downs. “We’ll be bringing back(baseball great) Pete Rose to Pocono this year,” he stated, then mentioned that“we are in negotiations for a couple more big name sports figures to be makingappearances at Pocono this year.”

The related 1-2 punch that brought Pocono the most to its loftyposition today was the authorization and then introduction of slots and casinogaming, the former of which led to the interest in and purchase of Pocono bythe Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority. Michael Bean, president/CEO of Mohegan SunPocono and president/GM of the Downs racetrack, noted in his remarks, “It seemshard to believe that it’s been ten years since Mohegan came to northeastPennsylvania. Since then, we’ve grown from Pocono Downs racetrack to become aworld-class entertainment destination,” with a full modern hotel, first-classrestaurants and shopping, and of course racing and gaming.

During the press conference, held in the popular Pacer’sClubhouse, the media had as a backdrop sixteen qualifying races. Fastestperformer of the day was the Armbro Deuce pacing gelding Rude Boy, wire-to-wirein 1:53.2 for driver Matt Kakaley and trainer Jason Robinson; equally-impressivewas the Swan For All trotting gelding Sonnyforall, who stormed his thirdquarter in 27.4 to grab the lead entering the final turn and drawing off in1:54.4 for trainer/driver Bill Mullin.

Pocono will open its 2016 racing season starting this Saturday ona Saturday-Tuesday basis in March, adding Sundays on April 3 and Mondays onApril 11; this four-day-a-week configuration will be the main schedule for theyear at Pocono. In a change, Sunday racing will begin at 7:30 p.m.; thetrotters and pacers will be called to first post at 6:30 p.m. on the otherthree nights. The racing on the thoroughbred Triple Crown Days will again be afeatured highlight, as will the early-season $250,000 Bobby Weiss Series fordeveloping youngsters.