Wilkes-Barre, PA – The Huntsville gelding Thunder Hunter Joe got a change in scenery in the Tuesday (June 25) afternoon feature at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, as the usually-late-charging four-year-old went wire-to-wire in 1:49.4 in taking the $17,000 featured pace.

A first quarter of :26 did not faze “Joe,” as he continued on to splits of :55.1 and 1:22.2 and won by a comfortable three lengths to raise his earnings to $399,970 for David Hamm, Glenn Phillips, and Christopher Giaccio. Thunder Hunter Joe’s driver, Braxten Boyd, led all Pocono horsemen Tuesday with four winners, and his trainer Nicholas Devita was the only conditioner to double, both winners handled by Boyd.

Thunder Hunter Joe proved uncatchable while winning Pocono’s Tuesday feature in 1:49.4. Salonick photo.

There were a pair of $15,000 contests for developing horses in the co-feature slots. On the pace, the Tellitlikeitis gelding Lovers Trouble recorded his second straight victory, here setting most of the pace and coming home in :55.3 to stop the timer in 1:52.1 for driver Ridge Warren, trainer Jenn Bongiorno, and owners JB Racing and Evans Nation. On the trot, driver Mattias Melander gradually worked the Greenshoe colt Luke The Spook up from mid-pack, proving to have the most late kick in 1:56 for trainer/brother Marcus Melander and AM Bloodstock Inc.

Pocono racing resumes on Saturday at 1 p.m.; featured will be a $25,000 Open pace with a field of six possessing an average lifetime mark of 1:48.2, and the 2024 Pocono standard of 1:49.1 could well fall given good weather. Sunday’s 6 p.m. card features the first stakes action of 2024 for two-year-olds, three $30,000 divisions of the Pennsylvania All-Stars colt trot. Free Pocono programs will be available at www.phha.org.