by James Beviglia, for Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs

Wilkes-Barre, PA — Tim Tetrick and Carmine Fusco have had an amazing season so far at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, and the driver/trainer combination reached a new peak on Saturday afternoon, July 21. The dynamic duo won four straight races on the card, and two of those winning horses set new track records in the process.

The streak began in race seven, when Apollo Todd led all the way to win his ninth straight start at Pocono. That broke the previous track record of eight consecutive wins, set by Verbal Abuse in 2004. Apollo Todd beat a field of $25,000 claimers for the record-setting victory, pacing the mile in 1:52.3.

The amazing part of the streak is that it began right after the 5-year-old gelding was claimed for $7,000 by Louis Beltrami and James Clement. Apollo Todd stopped at every rung on the claiming ladder during his streak before winning the last two races at $25,000, Pocono’s highest claiming race. Fusco has trained the gelding to seven of the nine straight wins, while Tetrick has driven for the last five.

After Tetrick and Fusco won races eight and nine with pacer Hesoneinamillion and trotter Karpathos, the pair set their sights on the 10th race feature, an Open Pace with a purse of $20,000. Their pacer, Four Starz Sue, was more than up to the task, picking up a front-running victory in 1:50, a new track mark for 4-year-old pacing stallions. Space Shuttle set the previous mark of 1:50.3 back in 2000.

Four Starz Sue now has 11 wins in 20 races this year despite being unraced as a 2-year-old and going winless as a 3-year-old last year. The stallion is owned by Four Starzzzz Stable.

Tetrick, who leads the nation’s drivers in wins and earnings, sits atop the Pocono drivers’ standings despite his part-time status at the track. Meanwhile Fusco’s 109 training victories are more than four times the amount of his nearest competitor at the track.