$2.8M IN PA SIRE STAKES FINALES THIS WEEKEND

Photos: Curtis Salonick Grace Zimmers

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
HARRISBURG PA – Harrah’s Philadelphia and Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, the two harness racing tracks in eastern Pennsylvania, will be hosting back-to-back $1.4M cards this Labor Day Weekend, with Philly (Sunday, 12:40) providing the stage for the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships for three-year-olds and their respective consolation races, while on Monday at 1 p.m., Pocono will be offering the same bounty for Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships for two-year-olds (again, plus consolations).
 
The four Championship races at each track will go for a purse of $300,000, with the consolation races offering a $50,000 bounty. The horses earned their way into their respective spots by accumulating points with high finishes in four preliminary legs. The competitiveness of this year’s crop is reflected in the fact that no horse -- freshman/sophomore, male/female, trot/pace – could post a victory in each of the four prelim rounds.
 
Here is a brief look at each of the eight 2026 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship races, starting with the three-year-olds at Philly on Sunday, and also going chronologically within the cards.
 
THREE-YEAR-OLDS on Sunday at Harrah’s Philadelphia (official scratches and driver changes tomorrow)
 
FILLY TROT (race 10): The preliminary pointleader has post eight (Frattina Diablo S), and the 2025 champion has post seven (Ginger Tree Lex). Carve has the highest 2026 earnings in the field, was just a neck behind winner Nezuko Kamado S in the Hambo Oaks, won her last Sire Stakes start, and has the fastest mark in the field of 1:51.1. And she has the rail – she’s likely to attract the most attention for trainer Noel Daley and driver Andrew McCarthy.
 
FILLY PACE (race 11): Miss Jum Jabber (post three, trainer Brett Pelling, driver Andrew McCarthy) did not race at two but has made up for lost time at age three, winning 10 of 12 starts including three PaSS prelims. In one of those Sires victories she photoed out 2025 Dan Patch Award winner Loua Dipa, who will be starting just outside her here. Sangria Summer, starting next door to the right of Loua Dipa, has won four straight races, including Pocono’s Lynch, and Say Goodnight, from post six in the center-of-the-gate foursome, is the defending Sires champion. Should be a most competitive race.
 
COLT TROT (race 12): Minoan was the only horse in his group to win two Sire Stakes prelims, which helped him become the leading pointwinner. He was also third in the Hambletonian Final. Another Noel Daley-Andrew McCarthy combination, Minoan does have the major challenge of beating the outside post eight, and five of his opponents won at least once in the Sire Stakes preliminaries. He’ll certainly be far, far less than the 103-1 he was the Hambo, but how will he handle the tricky post draw?
 
COLT PACE (race 13): After some very good performances that saw him come up just shy, Al Papi (post one, Yannick Gingras driving for trainer Ron Burke) has now won three of his last four races, including the Adios elimination and final, plus a recent Sire Stakes win that put him over $1M for his career, as is Burke stablemate Loua Dipa. And speaking of Burke, he is also sending out Melillo, just a head away in the Adios Final (post four, driver Ron Wrenn Jr.), and three-time PaSS prelim winner Another C Note (post seven, driver Tyler Buter).
 
 
TWO-YEAR-OLDS on Monday at Pocono Downs
 
FILLY TROT (race 9): Birr Castle looked to have the leadership in this sector until she was second to Orinoco last time, “Birr”’s first defeat after starting her career with three wins (two in the PaSS). And in the Championship Orinoco (trainer Åke Svanstedt, driver Yannick Gingras) has an edge on Birr Castle (trainer Marcus Melander, driver Scott Zeron), with Orinoco beginning from post four and Birr Castle from post seven. And we haven’t even mentioned Two Day Hangover (post three, trainer Melander, driver Dexter Dunn), who opened her scorebook with three wins including two Sire Stakes.
 
COLT PACE (race 10): Of all the weekend’s Sire Stakes Championships, this race will generate the most interest from serious students of the sulky sport, as it matches up two colts who are undefeated in their first five races: Shalom Hanover (trainer Dr. Ian Moore, driver Louis Roy), who set a track record 1:49.2 in his previous appearance here, and Starstruck Dreamer (there’s trainer Noel Daley again, with Andrew McCarthy’s brother Todd driving), who won three PaSS prelims and paced the fastest mile ever by a two-year-old on a five-eighth mile track, 1:48.4 at Philly.
 
Fate gave “Shalom” an edge at the post draw: he got post one, while “Starstruck” must contend with the outside post eight. Every dramatic element imaginable is coming together in this contest, which has the look of an “instant classic.”
 
FILLY PACE (race 11): JK Lady Liberty, whose dam is Horse of the Year JK She’salady, started her career with a second, and since then she hasn’t looked back with four victories, including three PaSS preliminaries, each at a different track. To be driven by Scott Zeron for trainer Nancy Takter from post four, JK Lady Liberty is likely to attract the majority of the fans’ attention, especially as she has the fastest winning time in the field, a 1:51.3 success at Philly.
 
COLT TROT (race 12): Dream Shaq (post eight, trainer Marcus Melander, driver Dexter Dunn) won his first starts in the Sire Stakes program, but in his last two Sires races he has finished second to the later-developing Jimdougie Armitage, who also has a post advantage today, starting from post three for the  newly-elected member of the Hall of Fame, driver-trainer Åke Svanstedt. (Careful readers may have noted that trainers Svanstedt and Melander are behind all of the prime PaSS Championship 2YO contenders we have mentioned here).
 
The Pennsylvania Stallion Series will also be hosting their Championship races this weekend, on Saturday afternoon at The Meadows (who can provide any information needed on those races). One theme of The Meadows’ afternoon is whether the Stallion Series program can produce its first sub-1:50 Championship mile – sophomore pacing colts Flash Move (The Meadows, 2023) and Sneak Attack (2025, Pocono) have both won in exactly 1:50. The Stallion Series finales look evenly-balanced – like the Sire Stakes, no one took victories in all four rounds of preliminary action.