By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA -- The Gimpanzee filly Concise didn’t exactly make short work of her opposition, but the answer to every question she was asked in the Bobby Weiss Trotting Series for fillies was “Correct” – she won all three of the preliminaries and then the $50,000 Weiss Championship on Tuesday afternoon at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.
 
Todd McCarthy had the catch-drive behind Concise, and after letting Aviatrix Blue Chip take the field to the quarter in :27.3, the pair retook command and got a breather to a :58 half. From that point there was no relaxing, as I Take The Care challenged the leader to a 1:25.1 three-quarters, and when that foe faded Aviatrix Blue Chip came on to try the favorite again, but she fell short by a length to the 1:54.3 lifetime best winning time posted by Concise.
 
Trained by Nik Drennan for his Drennan Stable LLC, Joseph Davino, and Brad Shackman, Concise was the only four-time winner among all the divisions of the Weiss, taking three prelims and then the Championship. Her four Weiss starts is her total output for the year, and she has won five of six lifetime trips to the gate.
 
In a $20,000 Weiss Consolation for the trotting fillies, the E L Titan miss B Eyelash also proved worthy of being backed as the favorite, posting a lifetime mark of 1:56.3 in winning for driver Braxten Boyd, trainer Jenny Melander, and Exceed Stables LLC. B Eyelash won by 3½ lengths while coming home in :57.2.
 
The pacing fillies also raced their $50,000 Weiss Championship on the Tuesday card, with no entrant having two preliminary wins but six of the eight having won one prelim round. Posting her second Weiss success at the optimal moment was the American Ideal filly American Cheese, who posted a swift 1:51.1 lifetime best while winning as the second choice.
 
Like his filly, driver Scott Zeron showed good Weiss timing as American Cheese was his only drive at Pocono on Tuesday. He worked out a two-hole trip behind fractions of :27, :56.2, and 1:23.2 behind Vanna By The River, then headed to the Pocono Pike and beat out the pacesetter by half a length, with favored Sicerto another half length back. Jared Bako conditions the winner, now three-for-five this season for Blue Chip Bloodstock Inc. and Philip Steinberg.
 
Tyler Buter, top Pocono driver in 2025 and again so far in 2026, won the last race to take Tuesday’s honors with three, including two sent out by the day’s only doubling trainer, John Butenschoen. Also visiting Victory Lane twice were sulkysitters Braxten Boyd, Todd McCarthy, and George Napolitano Jr.
 
Thoroughbred racing’s most famous race, the Kentucky Derby, will be preceded this Saturday (May 2) by a 1 p.m. card of live Standardbred racing at Pocono. Free program pages for Pocono are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Some of the brightest stars in the Pennsylvania-sired firmament will be shining at Harrah’s Philadelphia this Friday (May 1), as the 2026 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Pennsylvania Stallion Series programs make their 2026 statewide debuts, with over $200,000 in purses ready for the two divisions of Sire Stakes and five sections of Stallion Series on a 15-race program starting at 12:25.
 
The Sire Stakes races are slotted as races seven and ten, and the most attention will likely be concentrated on the latter division, as it marks the return to the races of Loua Dipa. The daughter of Sweet Lou was champion of her division in 2025 and posted the fastest time ever by a freshman filly, 1:48 at Lexington. Also a winner in both her elim and final of the Breeders Crown and successful in the She’s A Great Lady, Loua Dipa has qualified in 1:55.1 and then went an official workout for the judges in 1:54.4, both at The Meadows, the home base of trainer Ron Burke. Ron Wrenn Jr. will be headed eastward to guide Loua Dipa from post five in a field of seven for the ubiquitous Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
 
The seventh race division figures to be the more competitive of the two PaSS races. Say Goodnight, a daughter of Papi Rob Hanover, is best remembered locally for her pulling a $135.60 shocker here at Philly in her $300,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship last September; she’ll start from post four for driver Tyler Buter and trainer Nick Devita, a hot combo at Pocono in recent weeks. Starting from post two will be the Sweet Lou miss Topville Lucky, who will be making her first start of the year after ending her 2025 with five straight victories, including two Lexington Grand Circuit wins and a triumph in the Championship race of Kentucky’s highest-ranked stakes series.
 
The Stallion Series often produces horses who develop into Sire Stakes-caliber horses during the season, and Friday’s group has already shown flashes of promise. Among them they have wins in the Pennsylvania All-Stars, the Liberty Bell, the Simpson, the Commonwealth Championship in KY, an NJ Standardbred Development Fund success, and a Grand Circuit win in Delaware (OH).
 
Harrah’s Philly has set a dark day for Thursday, April 30 because it will race a special LIVE card on KENTUCKY DERBY SATURDAY (May 2) at 12:40. This means that the normal outstanding “Trottin’ Thursday” races will be pushed back a day to this Friday and featured alongside the pacing fillies.  A $13,500 contest for developing horses and a $13,000 fast-class event will be among the diamondgaited action – and the quality of these horses’ history is reflected in wins in both a PA Sire Stakes and a Stallion Series Championship, a NJ Classic victory, two Maryland Championships, and a Liberty Bell win still on their charted lines.
 
In summary, Harrah’s Philly will be racing Friday, May 1 at 12:25, the big Sire Stakes card, and then 12:40 starts for races on Saturday the 2nd and Sunday the 3rd. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Dilly Hanover won the $50,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for 3-year-old male trotters on Monday (April 27) by 2-1/4 lengths over Confident Volo in a career-best 1:54.2 at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania. Nose Jammer finished third, pictured out for second at 49-1.
 
Dilly Hanover, trained by Emily Bost and driven by Braxten Boyd, captured three of his four starts in the Weiss Series. Unraced as a 2-year-old, Dilly Hanover has won four of five races overall this season and earned $50,850 for owners Bost, R K 4 Racing and Bruce Potter. The gelding, a son of International Moni-Dornello, was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms.
 
Captain Vodka, who started from post seven and led the field through fractions of :27.2, :56.3, and 1:24.3, faced first-over pressure from Dilly Hanover from the half and briefly relinquished the lead on the backstretch before battling back on the inside. The two raced side by side on the final turn before Captain Vodka, the race’s 5-2 third choice, went off stride entering the stretch.
 
Dilly Hanover, the slight 8-5 favorite over Confident Volo, who had won all three of his Weiss preliminaries, paid $5.20 to win.
 
The $20,000 Weiss Consolation went to the Walner gelding King Of The Wind by open lengths in 1:57. Three early miscuers, including the favorite, aided King Of The Wind, who brushed to command off the first turn and was not threatened home. Absent from the first Weiss prelim, a winner in the second, and a breaker in the last prelim, King Of The Wind was back on his game Monday for driver Anthony Napolitano, red-hot trainer Joe Bongiorno, and El Dorado Stables.
Raspalia N, six-for-six Stateside before being photoed in 1:50 by Worklifebalance in her last start, turned in a 1:50 victory of her own in the $17,500 overnight feature for pacing distaffs. The daughter of Johny Rock, very distinctive in her red hood, earned a new continental mark while triumphing handily for driver Tyler Buter, trainer Agostino Abbatiello, and Durrazzano Stable LLC, and may still be able to climb rungs on the classladder.
Drivers with multiple wins on the card were Anthony Napolitano with four, Braxten Boyd with three, and George Napolitano Jr. with two. Lou Pena was the only trainer to win twice, with both success stories driven by “ANap.”
The Weiss Series action winds up Tuesday at 1 p.m. at Pocono, with $50,000 Championships for both gaits of fillies. The trotter Concise will attempt to become the only Weiss entrant to capture a Championship after winning in all three preliminaries, while the pace will be of a different makeup, with no entrant having captured two preliminaries, but six of the eight having taken one series prelim. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Captain Midnight gelding Heaven Needs Me did something on Sunday that few other winners at Harrah’s Philadelphia do – he came from dead last to take the $13,500 featured pace for developing horses in 1:52.4.
 
They were five-wide going towards the first turn, with favored TH Colby having to settle into a five-tuck as second choice Lazarus Star finally emerged with the leader in :28.1, then hit the half in :56.4. Down the back the outer “flow” was clogged and TH Colby stayed in, but Simon Allard did tip Heaven Needs Me out, then unleashed a three-wide move with him at the 1:24.2 three-quarters.
 
Heaven Needs Me gained a sizable amount of real estate (identical back quarters of :27) to defeat 46-1 shot Son Of Era by a neck, with TH Colby having to settle for third after not clearing until angling behind the winner in upper stretch. Heaven Needs Me is another of the well-performing team of trainer-owner Chelsey Faurot.
 
Good Friday, who was victorious when he made his sophomore qualifying return on Good Friday (April 3), reduced his mark to 1:53.4 in winning the $12,000 sub-feature for the oncoming pacers. The gelded son of Tall Dark Stranger (out of Virgin Mary) had not previously raced on the front end, but Philly’s top driver Tim Tetrick saw his best chances from the outside post eight were from up top, so he used the horse to clear past the quarter and set the pace. Good Friday then withstood railshooter Ghetto Loupastar by a half length, with pocketsitting Strangeronthebeach only another neck away from taking it all. as Good Friday won for trainer Tom Shay and owners Howard Taylor and Teens Freibert.
 
In the $13,000 fast-class pace, the Betterthancheddar gelding Iknowbetter shipped in from Yonkers, went right to the lead and set fractions of :27.1, :56.2, and 1:23.4. The Gotham invader had a pesky challenger in first-over Build The Wall much of the last half, and both showed gameness, with Iknowbetter emerging the winner by a half length in 1:51.2 for the ownership of Jennifer Bongiorno Stable LLC, Blair Corbeil, and Mike Mcallister.
 
Meanwhile, Iknowbetter’s trainer-driver Joe Bongiorno continues to be a kind of “victim of his own success,” especially on the training side. He drove three horses from his stable to victory Sunday, and had a fourth member of his shedrow finishing third – the only horse in 16 starts at the meet not to finish 1-2 for the Bongiorno barn! He had a .867 UTR heading into Friday (10-7-3-0), managed to lower that to .852 with a first and a second from his only two entrants, and Sunday the 4-3-0-1 tally – cause to rejoice in virtually every barn in the world -- again reduced his UTR all the way down to .847. We should all have such hard luck.
 
Aside from the Bongiorno heroics, meet leader Tim Tetrick drove three winners, with Simon Allard and George Napolitano Jr. each getting two sulky successes.
 
There will be no live racing this coming Thursday, April 30, as Philly will present a live program on Friday (12:25), Kentucky Derby Saturday (12:40), and Sunday (12:40) this coming week. The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series horses get together for the first time in 2026 on the Friday program, with three-year-old pacing fillies featured; that card will be drawn on Monday, with the following two cards put together in each of the following two days. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.     

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The last two weeks at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, the far turn has been the biggest foe for the three-year-old Always B Miki sophomore gelding Twin B Thriller. Last week, he suffered broken equipment nearing the stretch, then would go on to make an equipment break; in Saturday’s $50,000 Championship of the Bobby Weiss Pacing Series, his smoothness of gait on that curve might not have won him any points, but his grit and speed earned him $25,000 as he won the finale in 1:52.1 on a dank day and sloppy track.
 
Ooglesaurus and Twin B Thriller had won in each of the first two Weiss prelims; last week Ooglesaurus took off while Twin B Thriller had his misfortune. In the Championship, Ooglesaurus, starting just inside of his fellow double winner, was the favorite, and after making the early lead kept his opponent outside to a :27.2 quarter. His big foe having been cleared (although not without a couple of fumbly steps), Twin B Thriller kept going right down the road for driver George Napolitano Jr., putting up midsplits of :56.3 and 1:23.4.
 
Twin B Thriller kept it together on the far bend and paced strongly to the wire; Barrow, starting from the rail and having pushed the other two early, came up the Pocono Pike to get second, three parts of a    length behind the winner and two lengths ahead of Ooglesaurus. Twin B Thriller, three-of-four this year and seven-of-ten lifetime, went to the barn of Dennis A Laterza for the 2026 campaign after an off-season purchase by Ginko Stable Inc. and Latz A Luck Stable.
 
In the $20,000 Weiss Consolation, the Bettor’s Wish colt Vizcaya was moved to the lead near the quarter and posted identical halves of :56.3 to take a new mark of 1:53.1 handily. Anibal Borjas drove the winner for trainer Tony Alagna, whose Alagna Racing LLC shares ownership with Joseph Giaramita and Ronald Ostrow.
 
There were two $27,500 fast-class events scheduled for the veteran set. In the division restricted to four- and five-year-olds, another son of Bettor’s Wish, the gelding Odds On Wildfire, is now unbeaten in two seasonal starts and 15-for-32 lifetime after a 1:51.4 win in the muck. The four-year-old was moved twice to the lead by Dexter Dunn, and he stormed home in :55.3 to win unthreatened (his nurserymate Odds On No Limit was second) for trainer-owner Geovany Hernandez.
 
The other fast-class section, a handicap, saw the Sweet Lou five-year-old gelding Lou Hill both put in against older horses and handicapped outside, but the author of Pocono’s fastest mile this year (1:49.2) had no problem with this assignment, directed to the front by driver Colin Kelly and not looking back. He won in the off going in 1:51 to run his Pocono seasonal record to 6-4-2-0 for trainer Per Engblom, the 2026 local top conditioner, and owner Tom Hill.
 
Another talented “Lou” covered the off track in the quickest time of the day, as Lou Grant, another altered son of Sweet Lou, impressed in his seasonal bow, never looking back from the rail, and pacing home in :54.3 for a 1:50.2 victory. Dave Palone handled the driving chores for trainer Rick Hercules and owners Jack Piatt III and Howard Alexander.
 
Goliath Hanover was parked well past the quarter to get the front, saw two others go to the lead midrace, then waited and found room up the Pocono Pike to take the victory in a high-level claimer. Doesn’t sound unusual, does it? But consider these three facts: 1) he paid $118.20 to win in doing so; 2) he was driven by Pocono’s leading driver in 2025 and (so far) 2026, Tyler Buter; and 3) he is from the barn of Ron Burke, winner of the last four training crowns here and this year the first conditioner to send out two $50+ winners.
 
Two-time winners among the horsemen on the card were drivers Jason Bartlett, Tyler Buter, and George Napolitano. Of the pair of conditioners who won twice: both of Ron Burke’s were driven by Tyler Buter and both of Enrico Robinson’s were handled by Jason Bartlett.
 
$50,000 Weiss finals continue on Monday’s and Tuesday’s cards at Pocono, both beginning at 1 p.m.: the trotting males will have their Championship on Monday, with fillies of both gaits set to match up on Tuesday. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The red-hot stable of Joe Bongiorno, who has the early lead in the trainers win race at Harrah’s Friday, actually lowered its UTR by finishing 1-2 in the $12,000 pacing feature for distaffs Friday, as the Tall Dark Stranger mare Turn Up The Music won her second straight, with barnmate Hobby Gone Crazy up for second in the 1:52.3 mile.
 
Bongiorno was not driving at Philly Friday, but he found two effective deputies, with Tim Tetrick, going for his sixth straight local crown, handling Turn Up The Music, and Simon Allard, winningest driver on the day with three tallies, behind Hobby Gone Crazy -- the only two he had entered Friday. Turn Up The Music made every pole a winning one in a race with splits of :27.2, :56.4, and 1:24.2, holding off a determined bid by first-over Hobby Gone Crazy by three quarters of a length for Morrison Racing Stables. The Bongiorno barn had an amazing record of 10-7-3-0-.867 entering the race; the “sweep” ran its record to 12-8-4-0, reducing the percentage figure to .852.
 
Neil’s Diamond carried a basic price tag of $13,000 when she won her last start in 1:56.1 - :30.1; Friday she thundered home from last on the far turn to win the $11,500 fast-class pace for distaffs in a lifetime best of 1:51.2 for driver Allard, trainer Jeffrey Smith, and owner Joseph Jannuzzeli. The daughter of In The Arsenal has won three of five starts since adding Lasix, but the local bettors did not think she would handle such a class jump – when she did, she returned $78.00 to win, the third $50+ horse in the last two cards.
 
Along with Allard’s triple, doubling drivers included Troy Beyer (a day after he posted $50+ win prices in consecutive races), Mark Herschberger, and Tetrick.
 
The racing week concludes on Sunday with a 12:40 first race post, with featured pacing events for both up-and-coming horses and fast-class veterans; there will also be a carryover into the fifth race Pick-5 pool. Next week (April 30 – May 3), Harrah’s Philly will be dark for live racing on Thursday and then have live programs on Friday at 12:25 (with the 2026 debut of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series, for three-year-old pacing fillies), a Saturday 12:40 card on Kentucky Derby Day, and a Sunday program at 12:40. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – This coming week of racing at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, with cards on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday at 1 p.m., will host the four $50,000 Championships of the Bobby Weiss Series, named after the famed Pocono trackman.
 
The Weiss Series is written for developing three-year-olds to be given a platform to develop their top skills, especially with the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series competition starting up just around the corner. The Weiss divisions’ finales are staged as follows: pacing males on Saturday, trotting males on Monday, and fillies on both gaits on Tuesday. All but the pacing filly group also drew enough entrants for $20,000 Consolation races, to be raced on their respective Championship days.
 
The “glamour division,” the pacing males, will find Ooglesaurus (driver Jason Bartlett, trainer Joe Bongiorno) starting from post five, with Twin B Thriller (George Napolitano Jr., Dennis A Laterza) just outside him on Saturday. The two had been victorious in the first two prelims; Ooglesaurus took off last week, while Twin B Thriller suffered broken equipment while racing on the lead, effectively ending any real chance as he got rough with the malfunctioning gear.
 
Confident Volo was the only male to win in all three preliminary rounds, and on Monday he’ll try for a sweep from post six (Tyler Buter, Todd Buter). There are two horses who won two prelims: Dilly Hanover from post one (Braxten Boyd, Emily Bost) and Captain Vodka from post seven (Ridge Warren, Robert Baggitt Jr.), the latter’s coming in the last two prelims.
 
Both gaits of fillies are racing Tuesday, and only trotter Concise (Tim Tetrick, Nik Drennan) has successes in all three prelims (paralleling her fellow trotter, the male Confident Volo); she has post three on Tuesday. Aviatrix Hanover (Jason Bartlett, Jared Bako) and Allioop Hanover (Andrew McCarthy, Noel Daley) had two prelim wins, the former the last two weeks and the latter in the first two weeks before taking last week off; they begin from posts five and six respectively.
 
Among the pacing fillies, Miss Jum Jabber looked to be the horse to beat after nicely winning her only two prelims, but she did not enter her Weiss race. Her absence leaves a wide-open contest among the distaff sidewheeling set; there were no other double prelim winners, but six of the eight starters did record one preliminary win, and racing fortune is sure to have a hand in the outcome for this competitive group.
 
Free Pocono past performance pages are or will be available at www.phha.org

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Thursday afternoon card at Harrah’s Philadelphia was full of both fast winning times and mutuel upsets; Dame Good Time’s 1:51.4 victory in the $13,000 feature trot fits both thematic categories.
 
Andy Miller had Dame Good Time flying away from the gait to assume command quickly, with favored Benjamin Hanover at the other end of the field after an early break. The victorious Chapter Seven gelding unfurled splits of :27.2, :55.2, and 1:22,4 and was just as fresh at the end of the mile as he was at the start, winning by 5½ lengths even though he had not started since November 19 at Dayton (OH). He paid $29.60 to win; driver Miller had three wins in all on Thursday to lead all horsepeople, and the other two win mutuels were $14.00 and $11.60.
 
Dame Good Time has had some moments in the racing sun. The now five-year-old won a Bluegrass division at two; at three he won the Zweig and upset the mighty Karl in the Championship race of the top level of the Kentucky program, where he took his mark of 1:50.3. He also has had different trainers in his four campaigns for owner John Cummins; it’s a bit ironic that Nicholas Devita, who is in charge of him in 2026, was his trainer for his first two qualifying starts before he changed barns, and now gets back a horse who could be of the very best quality.
 
There were three $12,000 contests for developing horses serving as co-features. The trotting division also went to Andy Miller with Just Teasing, a sophomore Captain Corey filly who improved one position off a second in her seasonal bow, lowering her mark to 1:55.2 for trainer/wife Julie Miller and the combine of Andy Miller Stable Inc., Jean Goehlen, and Windsong Stable.
 
There was a pacing co-feature for each sex. In the contest for males that concluded the card, the fastest time of the day, 1:51, was posted by the Sweet Lou three-year-old gelding Im A Real American, who posted a new mark . Driver Simon Allard sat unmasking through the stretch after his horse led throughout fractions of :27.1, :55.4, and 1:22.3. Per Engblom conditions Im A Real American for Evans Nation and Engblom Farm LLC.
 
The female co-featured pacers were topped by the Papi Rob Hanover filly Make It Right in 1:53.3. Tim Tetrick had to use the sophomore three-wide the entirety of the opening panel en route to making the top at the three-eighths, but Make It Right did everything right in the :56.1 - :27.4 back numbers to tally for trainer Jim King Jr. (Tetrick-King with another female pacer – watch out) and owners Gary McCandless, Jo Ann Looney-King, and Larry Rathbone.
 
Only three favorites won on the day, but bettors who adjusted early to driver Troy Beyer were amply rewarded. Beyer won the second race with Perla while paying $70.60, then came right back in the very next contest to front his field with Captain Cash at $51.00. Posting two winners paying $50+ in one day is very rare; doing it in consecutive contests is a testament to getting the most out of every drive.
 
In addition to Beyer’s and Andy Miller’s multi-win days, doubles were recorded by driver Simon Allard and Mark Herschberger, and trainer Annie Stoebe.
 
The week continues at Harrah’s Philadelphia with a 12:25 Friday card and a 12:40 Sunday program. Next week, Thursday will be a dark day because of a special 12:40 program on Kentucky Derby Saturday (May 2); the day before that, the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series make their 2026 debut with a leg for three-year-old pacing fillies.
 
Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Trainer Travis Alexander sent out three of the six qualifier wins at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania Wednesday morning. All were older pacers defeating some promising returning three-year-olds – and each winner was handled by a different driver.
 
Pleaseletmeknow, a career winner of $943,542, stopped the timer in 1:52.2, coming out of the pocket for Jason Bartlett to down the sophomore Knoxville, third in the NYSS final, by a length while covering his back fractions in :55.4 - :27.3.
 
The Greek Freak, with $584.018 on his card, wired his field in 1:52.3 - :55.3 for Braxten Boyd. Among the defeated were two three-year-old fillies: Tall Dark Tequila, third in the Matron, and the winner’s stablemate Odds On Monetary, third in the Big Apple Final after winning an elimination.
 
The third winner was a newcomer to the barn, the recent Dover Open Mare mainstay Ballast, who led throughout and scurried home in :55 – :27.2 in a 1:53.4 mile for driver Matt Kakaley. Fillies were 2-3 behind her: Say Goodnight, who paid $135.60 in winning her Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship, took the deuce, ahead of Long Shore, the Big Apple winner.
 
Going a fast mile after coming up from Florida was another sophomore pacing filly, Imagine Heaven, who might have been surprised with the temperature at 46 after her wintering, but still went 1:54.4 - :55.2 - :27.1 in making every pole a winning one for driver Bartlett and trainer Hunter Oakes.
 
The Pocono qualifying card can be watched at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Just as in the Bobby Weiss Series preliminaries for males, where only one trotter (Confident Volo) could be victorious in all three prelims, so the case proved to be in Tuesday’s third round $17,500 events of both Weiss series for females , as the trotting filly Concise swept all three prelim starts with a 1:55.3 time Tuesday  at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.
 
Tim Tetrick got the daughter of Gimpanzee to the lead just past the quarter, backed off the middle half, then dashed home 1¼ lengths better than pocketsitting Nightcap Mearas S while equaling the mark she set in the middle prelim. Nik Drennan trains the winner of four of five lifetime for his Drennan Stables LLC, Joseph Davino, and Brad Shackman.
 
The other two trots were won by the second and third choice in their races, even though neither paid over $5.60. The Captain Corey miss I Take The Care was the fastest Weiss trotter Tuesday, brushing from fifth to the lead in a :27.1 second quarter, then defeating Chestnut Kelly (both horses were 3-2, with the Chestnut having $30 more on her to win) by three quarters of a length while breaking  her maiden in 1:54.4. George Napolitano Jr. gave his charge an aggressive drive and made it pay off for trainer Blake MacIntosh and Hutt Racing Stable.
 
The other diamondgaited dash went to the Chapter Seven filly Aviatrix Hanover, who overcame post eight and survived an inquiry to win for the second straight time in the Weiss. Aviatrix Hanover, the 9-5 third choice, recorded a 1:56 clocking while winning for driver Jason Bartlett, trained Jared Bako, and Blue Chip Bloodstock Inc. There was a rare double inquiry on the first two horses under the wire, with Aviatrix Hanover not faulted but Cynic dropped from second to third for a breaking violation, with co-8-5 shot and favorite Kickan upped to the deuce.
 
There were two divisions of the pace, with the Bettor’s Wish miss Miss Jum Jabber, who skipped the second prelim, posting bookending wins, here in 1:52 - :54.2- :27 while going two-move uncovered. Andrew McCarthy was in the sulky behind the heavy favorite for trainer Brett Pelling and his Pelling Racing LLC.
 
The Sweet Lou filly Sicerto progressed in the Weiss from a sixth to a third to a win in the other sidewheeling event, coming from fifth at the stretch call to catch chalk Vanna By The River by a neck while lowering her record to 1:52.1. Tim Tetrick secured this pacing win to match his Weiss trotting score, and the 6-1 shot has now won half of her six lifetime starts for trainer Michael Hall and the partnership of CTC Stable, KDP Stable LLC, and Manklin Creek LLC.
 
George Napolitano Jr. won three of the last four races to end the day with four wins and sulky honors. The other Weiss winning drivers had doubles: Jason Bartlett, Andrew McCarthy, and Tim Tetrick (his two wins in the Weiss). Driver Braxten Boyd also had a two-bagger, as did trainer Brett Pelling.
 
The Weiss preliminaries are now finished; the three-year-olds will have $50,000 Championships, plus whatever $20,000 consolations will fill, on the following schedule: pacing colts on the track’s next card, Saturday (April 25); trotting colts the following Monday, and fillies on both gaits the day after that.
 
Saturday’s card also features a $20,000 Weiss consolation, a $27,500 fast-class pace, and a carryover into the last race High 5 wager. Post time for next week’s cards is 1 p.m. every day. Free Pocono pages are or will be available at www.phha,org.