by PHHA/Pocono

Wilkes-Barre, PA — Rockin Ron, hung through wildfire fractions of :25.4 and :53.1 in the Van Rose Memorial on Kentucky Derby Day at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, found a pace and a trip that was much more to his liking on Preakness Saturday (May 20), parlaying a pocket trip into a 1:50.3 victory in the $25,000 pacing feature at the Downs.

Curtis Salonick photo

Rockin Ron outlasts Major Uptrend for the victory at Pocono on Saturday evening.

Eric Goodell, notching his third sulky success of the night and second for trainer Ron Burke, was away briskly from the rail with the winning Real Desire gelding, stretching out the hot Major Uptrend to a bit past a :27.2 quarter before yielding the front. Just after the :56.1 half, Barimah A, who won the Van Rose closing off the scalding pace, came first-over, and he and Major Uptrend fought tooth-and-nail through a :26.4 third quarter, with Rockin Ron having the best seat in the horses to watch the unfolding action.

After the field turned into the stretch, Rockin Ron, owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, and RTC Stables, had the opportunity to used the famed Pocono Pike, but Major Uptrend was proving his usual game self in the lane and Rockin Ron got the lead only deep in the stretch, winning by a neck over Major Uptrend, who is now is only five feet away (two necks and a head) from having an 11-race win streak. Boston Red Rocks, the 6-5 favorite, rallied from second-over to be third, another neck back, with Barimah A holding well to finish just a half-length behind him and a length off first place overall.

In the $20,000 co-feature pace, one of the all-time great horses for this course, Luck Be Withyou, posted the fastest clocking of the season at the mountain oval, 1:49.3, going wire-to-wire for driver George Napolitano Jr., trainer Chris Oakes, and owner John Craig. The son of Western Ideal has won 14 of 21 career starts at Pocono, including the Breeders Crown final at two, the Franklin final at four, and the Van Rose and the Franklin Consolation at five, in the latter setting his lifetime mark of 1:47.3. Of his $1,329,741 lifetime bankroll, $690,250 of it has been earned over the famed brick-red surface.

The victory with Luck Be Withyou was one of seven on the night for George Napolitano Jr., the track’s current and all-time leading driver. One race that wasn’t won by either Napolitano Jr. or Goodell, though, was the race right after the feature, which was won by Eric Carlson, who like Goodell is a former Michigan driving leader.

Carlson rallied trotter Cinnabar Hall off a fast pace to win in a career best 1:54.4, paying to his scattered backers $118.40 to win – just behind the seasonal high of $119.20 returned by Threeupthreedown on April 2.

Sunday night (May 21) at Pocono, the top-ranked colt in the sport’s 3-year-old colt and gelding pacing division in Huntsville, will face a tough foe in Fear The Dragon in one of three divisions of the second leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes. Huntsville comes off an awesome seasonal debut, where he won by 10 lengths in 1:50.4 at The Meadows in the first Sires leg; Fear The Dragon, the Brian Brown stablemate of another top sophomore in Downbytheseaside, won the same day in 1:52.1.