Wilkes-Barre, PA — The big Memorial Day weekend stakes trail comes to The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Monday afternoon (May 31), where classy 3-year-old colt trotters will contest the second preliminary round of their Pennsylvania Sire Stakes, along with the complementary Stallion Series races.

Each of the three Sires divisions has a distinctive “personality.”

The sixth race cut is the “Ready To Break Through” division, as many of the horses could progress to the top level of this group with a good performance.

The early favorite is Capstone, who missed just a neck in his 2021 debut for trainer/driver Åke Svanstedt and will start from post five here. Just outside him is Mister Boinga, a Pennsylvania All-Stars winner in his last start for driver Jason Bartlett and trainer Jill Roland.

Captain Corey was last year’s Sire Stakes champion. Curtis Salonick photo.

The eighth race division is the “2020 Champions” grouping, as it matches last year’s Sire Stakes champion Captain Corey (making his 2021 debut for Svanstedt from post six), the Stallion Series finale winner Lepanto (post four, with Yannick Gingras driving for trainer Svanstedt), and the 2020 Fairs champion Top Me Off (post three, driver Andy Miller for trainer Todd Schadel), who earlier this year swept his Weiss Series division here.

The tenth race section is the “First Round Winners” event, as the three horses successful in the PaSS first preliminary round have drawn in together.

Starting from the rail for driver Dan Charlino and trainer Ron Burke is Whiskey Blu, who is 2021’s winningest trotter in North America with 10 victories already this campaign, including his All-Stars win last week here. Post three was the draw for In Range (driver Tim Tetrick, trainer Marcus Melander), who won his 2021 bow in the fastest Sires division, 1:52.3. And from post six is yet another Svanstedt trainee, Johan Palema, who will be driven by Dexter Dunn after winning off the shelf in the other Sires cut at The Meadows.

There are four divisions of Stallion Series action, and one of them contains the Breeders Crown champion of last year, On A Streak, who hopes to improve on his third-place finish in his 2021 return for driver Bob McClure and trainer Luc Blais.

Three of Monday’s entrants are ranked in the top seven in the “Road To The Hambletonian” feature: In Range (No. 2), On A Streak (No. 3), and Captain Corey (No. 7).

Pocono is currently racing on a Saturday through Tuesday schedule, with Sunday’s racing starting at 5 p.m. and the other three programs beginning at 12:30 p.m. Program pages will be available at the PHHA website.