by Evan Pattak, for The Meadows

Meadow Lands, PA — Pokey Reese the second baseman no longer plies his trade in western Pennsylvania. But Pokey Reese the trotter does, and he’s doing right fine.

In fact, the four-year-old gelding captured the $12,000 final of the Sir Daffy early closing series for trotters on Tuesday night at The Meadows, scoring a one and a quarter length victory over Indiancamp Pa.

Leaving from post position two, Pokey Reese got away third, but the son of S J’s Photo was guided to the lead at the quarter pole by Bill Fahy, whose wife Moira owns and trains the horse. That move was enough to put away all challengers but Indiancamp Pa, who made up five and a half lengths with a backside brush. Pokey Reese, though, was too good, scoring in the sharp time of 1:57⁴. Idadazzle finished third, seven and a half lengths behind the leader.

While Pokey Reese was indeed named for the ballplayer who became a fan favorite during his brief stay in Pittsburgh, it actually wasn’t the first name the Fahys submitted to the United States Trotting Association for approval.

“He’s always done everything slowly except race,” Moira Fahy said. “So we submitted a number of names with ‘Gumby’ or ‘Pokey’ in them. This was the one we got.”

The Fahys have shown uncommon patience with Pokey Reese, who earned only $124 at two — he now has more than $29,000 on his card — and must perform with chronic foot problems. He survived near disaster in the final elimination leg of the Sir Daffy when he threw three shoes, chewing up his front feet so badly that they needed to be rebuilt with fiberglass in a three hour procedure.

“We stuck with him because he showed talent,” Bill Fahy said.

Now, if only he could turn the double play.

The series was named for Sir Daffy, a preferred trotter who earned more than $400,000 — nearly all of it at The Meadows for trainer Randy Bendis — before a knee injury forced his retirement last year. The gelding still plays an important role at the trainer’s farm.

“He’s in charge of the young horses,” Bendis said. “If they start to jump around, he’ll make a fuss and settle them down. He’s the lieutenant of the barn.”

In the subfeature on Tuesday’s card, John R. Melsheimer made a spectacular entrance to the Midwest split of the World Cup eliminations for amateur drivers, sweeping four wide late with Manhattan Special to win by three and a half lengths in 2:01². Richard Perfido trains the winner for Midwood Stable. In this final preliminary leg of the Midwest split, Leslie Zendt was second with Meadowbranch Niles, while Michelle Ruvola and Hinkle finished third.

“We didn’t want to be that far outside,” Melsheimer said. “But we didn’t get away well, and we were out there just trying to follow Leslie.”

The five top finishers from the Midwest will join the five leaders of the Eastern split in a three race finale at Balmoral Park in April, with the winner representing the U.S. in the world amateur championships in Belgium this summer.

With her place finish, Zendt became the unofficial Midwest champion. The other unofficial qualifiers are Ned Hodkinson, George Bonomo, Robert Chapman and Ruvola, who is Bonomo’s daughter. Melsheimer’s appearances in the series were limited by scratches, and the points he earned Tuesday failed to place him in the top five.