Wilkes-Barre, PA – Team Melander took the two trotting features on Sun Stakes Saturday (Aug. 20) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono – Joviality S in the Delmonica Hanover, Temporal Hanover in the Earl Beal Memorial – and they came back to win the two trotting features among four $15,000 headliners over a wet, “sloppy” track on Monday (Aug. 22) afternoon.

Theresnolimit S holds off Abruzzo to add another Team Melander win to the books Monday at Pocono. Curtis Salonick photo.

On Monday trainer Marcus Melander sent out a pair of 3-year-old colts by Nuncio, and they showed their quality by overcoming tuck-then-first-over journeys. The faster was Theresnolimit S, who might be named as a description of the number of talented trotters in this barn, scoring in 1:54.1. Another good horse, Abruzzo, gave the winner a fine battle through the stretch, with the Mattias Melander-driven sophomore prevailing by a neck after a :28 last quarter for Stall TZ Inc.

Mattias Melander and Stall TZ were also important parts of the earlier trot feature winner, Letsdoit S, who was home first by 1-3/4 lengths in 1:55.3 for Mattias, Marcus, and co-owners Stall TZ Inc. and Holly Lane Stud East LTD.

The Melanders combined on a third winner, the Chapter Seven 3-year-old Zappa, who in taking a new mark of 1:57 for S R F Stable was not an odds-on winner like his stablemates, but a 7-1 shot who held off heavy favorite Priceless Fashion by a nose. The three Melander winners paid $3.00 in race eight, $3.40 in race 10, and $17.40 in race 12; if you would have combined them with Tyler Buter winners in the odd-numbered races in between, Gino Sniper ($22.00) and Captain Romance ($6.60), your 8-1-6-1-4 Pick-5 ticket would have returned $425.82 for the minimum 20-cent wager. Mattias Melander and Tyler Buter were the drivers with three victories on the Monday card.

We haven’t forgotten the pacing winners – they were the He’s Watching three-year-old gelding Codys Knapsack, winning his third straight with a 1:52.4 mile for driver Matt Kakaley, trainer Ron Burke, and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC along with Scott Dillon, and the Sweet Lou three-year-old filly Odds On Gamma, home in 1:53.4 for driver Jim Taggart Jr., trainer Tony Alagna, and Odds On Racing.

The jam-packed week of racing at The Downs concludes on Tuesday (Aug. 23) with a 1:30 p.m. post time. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available at https://www.phha.org/downsmsppps.html.