By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Luminosity shined most brightly in the $18,000 featured trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, winning by 5¾ lengths in 1:53.4, just a fifth off the lifetime best of the nine-year-old.
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Driver Yannick Gingras reserved the Cash Hall gelding, trained by Ron Burke for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, off a contested :27.3 quarter, but then gave him the word to go, and Luminosity did, hitting the half in :56.3 and then staying clear the back half, past the 1:24.3 three-quarters and right through the wire. Dream Massive, who four starts ago was laboring in the track’s bottom class, raced well uncovered for second, with Sky Marshal closing for third. A winner of $826,917, Luminosity raised his win percentage to 25% both for the season (4-of-16) and lifetime (45-of-180).

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Great Northeast Open Series (GNOS) will have $30,000 events for open-caliber horses on both gaits this weekend, with the pacers going during a post-Preakness Saturday night program at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, and the trotters getting their turn the next afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
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The three morning line choices in the GNOS pace will be starting in inverse order from the rail in their Pocono event. Sweet Rock (post three, driver Eric Carlson, 5-2) was second to first-leg GNOS winner Highalator in a 1:48.3 mile at The Meadowlands last week; Dealt A Winner (post two, driver George Napolitano Jr., 3-1) was a close fifth in that race as he rounds into top form; and Rodeo Rock (post one, driver Eric Goodell), gets a big improvement in post as he makes his second start since being second in the Levy Final on April 20.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
CHESTER PA – Driver Tim Tetrick, who has gone to the lead in the local sulksysitting standings, posted four winners in the first five races Wednesday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia and wound up with five on the card, but in the two features he and his favored horse were caught in photo finish victories by “pocket rockets.”
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In the $16,000 featured pace, Handsoffmychips was sent to the lead by Tetrick and went fractions of :27.3, :56, and 1:23.1, but the He’s Gorgeous gelding Miss U Big Mike was lying in wait in the two-hole for driver Marcus Miller. The pair came up the inside to catch the favorite by a neck, with Miss U Big Mike lowering his mark 3 2/5 seconds with a 1:51.2 final clocking. Christie Collins conditions the winner, who has an enviable lifetime win rate of 28% (16-for-58) for owner Irwin Kaplan.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Rockstar Angel A, coming off a wire-to-wire win at Yonkers this past Friday, came right back to win again on Tuesday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, moving to the lead in front of the stands and going on to a 1:54 triumph over a “sloppy” surface. 

Driver George Napolitano Jr. watched as Keystone Riptide put Betterb Chevron N behind her to the:27 quarter, then was on the move with the “Angel” to get the lead well before the :55.4 half. The winning daughter of Bettor’s Delight, who kept her place in the race because of the “eligible at time of entry” rule, got a bit of a breather though going against the wind to the 1:25.1 three-quarters, then sprinted home over the off going in :28.4 (co-fastest last quarter of the night) to have a length advantage at the wire over a closing Bettor’s Up, with early combatants Keystone Riptide and Betterb Chevron N another length back in third in a dead-heat. (This was the third consecutive race where there was a dead heat, the previous ones coming for second and fourth.)

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – 2018 Two-Year-Old Pacing Colt of the Year Captain Crunch makes his 2019 debut in the middle of three divisions of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes second preliminary for the glamour division, to be held at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Sunday night in races nine through eleven – and he couldn’t have found a more challenging spot in which to open his season.

Captain Crunch, a Captaintreacherous colt trained by Nancy Johansson for the 3 Brothers Stables, Christina Takter, the Rojan Stables, and Caviart Farms, won six of ten starts, including the Breeders Crown here at Pocono and the Governor’s Cup, en route to divisional honors while winning the most money among baby colts, $616,113, and coming within a fifth of his division’s world record by winning in 1:49.1 at Lexington. Prepping for 2019, Captain Crunch has qualifying wins in 1:50.1 and 1:51.2 (the latter on a “good +1” track).

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Tequila Monday was an in-charge repeat winner in the Great Northeast Open Series (GNOS) for mare pacers Sunday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, home in 1:52.1 over a “sloppy +1” track with the mercury hovering around 40. In the companion GNOS contest for open trotters, also worth $30,000, Guardian Angel AS was sharp in his second outing of the year, winning easily in 1:53.1, with Homicide Hunter never a major factor in his debut for both the year and for the Burke Brigade.
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Kissininthesand, second after going first-over against Tequila Monday in the GNOS opener last Saturday, was scratched sick here, taking a little of the drama out of the race, but the great 2018 filly champion, even with expected improvement in her second seasonal start, would have had it tough against the razor-sharp winning daughter of American Ideal. The rest of her opposition sure did.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Pennsylvania All-Stars series began its annual run at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Saturday night, with three $30,000 divisions of sophomore pacing males in the spotlight.
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The first All-Stars division was taken by the heralded and well-bred Sweet Lou colt Blood Money, but only by a nose in 1:50. It was an interesting strategic “chess match” between Scott Zeron, guiding Blood Money, and George Napolitano Jr. behind Escapetothebeach: Zeron gradually guided Blood Money to the lead past a :26.4 opener, only for Napolitano to brush in front of the stands with his first-time 2019 starter to have the lead before the :55 half. Zeron didn’t want to be caught in with his 1-5 shot, so he regained command before the 1:22.3 three-quarters, only to have Escapetothebeach hang right behind him, take the Pocono Pike, and only get beaten by the slightest of margins. Brassy Hanover, ducking inside fading cover on the far turn, rallied up the far inside and missed by only ¾ of a length in third.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The stars of the day Friday at Harrah’s Philadelphia, where three-year-old trotting fillies contested their first preliminary round in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Pennsylvania Stallion Series, were driver Yannick Gingras, sire Cantab Hall – and a $200,000 yearling, never on the board in seven previous career starts, winning a Sire Stakes section and paying $100.80, or more than the other thirteen winners on the card combined.
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The longshot special was Hallintheclouds, who wasn’t a longshot on pedigree – sired by Cantab Hall, who added three Stallion Series credits, and out of the Yankee Glide mare Headintheclouds, the dam of the $870G+ winner Barn Girl. And she wasn’t a longshot in the mind of trainer/driver Åke Svanstedt, who sent her to the lead just after a :28 opener, then brought her back uncovered after two horses had passed her to the :57.2 half. Hallintheclouds went right up to favored Magical Beliefs, looked her in the eye to the 1:26.1 three-quarters, and went right on by headstretch, trotting out a 2 1/2 length winner over Firedbylindie, also used early and late, in a new mark of 1:55.4 for Åke Svanstedt Inc., Little E LLC, Fayette AB, and Gabriella’s LLC.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Explosive Matter gelding Scirocco Rob sat a pocket trip behind favored Buen Camino, then drew away from the 1-5 shot by three lengths in taking the $18,000 featured trot on Thursday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
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Buen Camino, a winner of $692,231, went right to the front around Scirocco Rob and put up fractions of :28, :56.3, and 1:24.4, with Sky Marshal applying midrace first-over pressure. That foe would tire, but Scirocco Rob was still quite fresh, and when tipped outside at headstretch he roared right by the chalk in his second start of the year, raising his earnings to $305,898. Mark Silva now handles the conditioning of the winner for owners Kathleen and Lewis Whitaker Jr.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – This Sunday promises some spectacular racing at the two tracks served by the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s Association (PHHA), with the Great Northeast Open Series (GNOS) staging a trio of $30,000 events, for open pacers at Harrah’s Philly in the afternoon and for mare open pacers and open trotters at Mohegan Sun Pocono at night.

In the open pacing event at Philly, Rodeo Rock has been installed as a tight 7-2 favorite in a well-matched field of nine which will be the fifth race. The Robert Cleary pupil, to be driven by Andrew McCarthy, is one of only four North American horses to have earned over $200,000 already this year, the bulk of his bankroll coming when finishing second in the $664,000 Levy Final at Yonkers.
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Starting just to his outside will be Donttellmeagain for trainer Jim King Jr. and driver Tim Tetrick. A state favorite since winning the PA Stallion Series Championship in 2017, Donttellmeagain holds the distinction of being the last horse to win against 2018 Horse of the Year McWicked, and he comes off a 1:49 victory at The Meadowlands.