by John Berry, for Pompano Park

Pompano Beach, FL — Remissionofsins, knocking at the door with second place finishes in his last three starts, finally got through to the pearly gates of the winner’s circle on Sunday night (March 8), scoring a handy victory for George Napolitano Jr. in a lifetime best performance.

The 7-year-old altered son of Final Cheers stopped the clock in 1:50.4 in the $10,000 pace for $20,000-$25,000 claimers, one tick faster than his former mark set two seasons back.

Though starting from the outside post eight in his classy octet, Remissionofsins was sent winging as the gate opened, assuming the lead from Premier (Rick Plano) just a step or two prior to the blazing opener of :26.2 and went on to post subsequent panels of :55 and 1:23.1 before setting sail on a :27.3 journey home to hit the wire 2-1/2 lengths to the good of Premier with Fearless Chip (Aaron Byron) third. Zavan and Dont Tell Rusty were next.

In a post race interview, driver George Napolitano Jr. lamented, “This is a hard hitting racehorse with great gate speed. He showed that from the nine post a couple of starts back and since this was his first start off of a fresh claim last week I thought I’d send him, too, since he seems to like to get into the action early. I certainly couldn’t afford to spot these good horses eight lengths at the start. I thought the opening quarter might take some sting out of him but he proved he was worth the claim…that’s for sure!”

In his first start for new owner Susan Oakes and trainer Chris Oakes, Remissionofsins won for the initial time this season with this share of the purse sending his 2015 earnings to $21,660 on the strength of a 1-5-2 scorecard in 10 starts. He’s banked $128,796 lifetime. As second choice on the toteboard, Remissionofsins paid $6.20 to win.

The co-featured $8,500 pace for $15,000 claimers went to Red Hot Yankee, justifying his re-claim one week ago by former owners Melvin Fink and Cliff Grundy.

Trained by Paul Holzman and driven this night by Napolitano, Red Hot Yankee annihilated his competition with a seasonal best time of 1:51.1, scoring by eight lengths over Electric Albert (Aaron Byron) with Hurricane Howard (Tom Sells) third. Major Stone, off the gate at the start, rallied for fourth while Fly’n With Royalty finished fifth in the sextet after making an attempt for the top during the second quarter that proved fatal for his chance to win.

Red Hot Yankee, an 11-year-old son of Artsplace, won for the third time in nine starts this semester, pushing his 2015 earnings to $24,756. He’s banked $259,014 lifetime. As the 1-2 favorite, Red Hot Yankee paid $3.00 to his many faithful.

The featured trot on Sunday night — the $7,700 Pop-Up conditioned event — went to C&F Associates’ Dream Lake, superbly handled by Matt Romano.

The 7-year-old gelded son of Dream Vacation was given picture perfect rating through fractions of :28.2, :58 and 1:28 before holding his foes at bay with a :28.4 finale to score by 1-1/2 lengths over the pocket sitting Speed Hanover (Ed Hensley) in 1:56.4. Bsmaximummoondream (Dave Ingraham) was third while Rose Run Nolan finished fourth. Famous Legs picked up the nickel in the bulky field of 10.

Dream Lake won for the third time in nine starts — 15th win lifetime — to send his seasonal bounty to $14,200. He’s banked $161,371 lifetime. Second choice at 8-5 in the win betting, Dream Lake paid $5.40 to win.

Pompano Park’s popular Pick-5 wager, conducted on races two through six, went unscathed on Sunday night and a $12,500 guarantee has been put in effect for Monday night’s Pick-5 pool.

In Pompano Park’s finale on Sunday night, four of the leading drivers in all of harness racing — Bruce Ranger, Wally Hennessey, Kevin Wallis and George Napolitano, Jr., coming into the action with a combined lifetime win total of 34,031 — finished 1-2-3-4 in the track’s Super Hi-5 — and nobody could even get past the top three with the 5-7-2-ALL-ALL combo paying more than $1,400 for a 20 cent ticket.

The Super Hi-5 event now has been left untouched for several programs and that carryover has vaulted to more than $24,000 going into Monday night’s card. Post time is 7:30 p.m.