Wilkes-Barre, PA – The spotlight was on distaff pacers on Monday (Sept. 12) afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono as the mountain track commenced its basic fall schedule of live harness racing.

Think Of Galaxies gets the job done in the Monday afternoon feature at Pocono. Curtis Salonick photo. 

The $17,000 top pace for class climbing fillies and mares went to the So Surreal mare Think Of Galaxies, who got a walk in the park to the half in :57.3 and then sprinted home in :55 – :27.1 to complete a mile in 1:52.3 over a track that had been rerated to “good +1” mid-card. The track’s leading driver and trainer, Matt Kakaley and Ron Burke, combined behind the winner as she lifted her career earnings to $253,665 for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC along with Peter Kleinhans.

Kakaley had a driving triple on Monday, as did Jim Pantaleano, who was behind the Betting Line mare Milieu Hanover as she controlled the pace en route to a 1:52 victory (also over the “good” going) in the $14,500 co-feature. The winner of $242,378 is trained by Nicholas Devita for Devita Racing Stable Inc., David Hamm, and Christopher Giaccio.

From now to the end of the 2022 Pocono meet on Saturday, November 19, The Downs will host live racing on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday afternoons at 1:30 p.m. Program pages for all Pocono races are or will be available at https://www.phha.org/downsmsppps.html.