By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Highalator added to his impressive lifetime record at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Saturday afternoon, as he is now 17 for 28 in his career at the mountain oval after a 1:50.1 victory in the $15,700 conditioned pacing feature.
 
Driver Rick Still did not try to outgun the outside leavers with the winning son of Somebeachsomewhere as they raced to a :26.3 quarter; he left him on the outside and gradually got the top before the :54.4 midway clocking. Second-choice Vettel N came up to challenge the leader before the 1:21.4 three-quarters, but Highlator remained his usual game self to run his lifetime totals to 41 wins in 92 starts and earnings of $654,228 for trainer Jenny Bier, who is co-owner with Joann Dombeck and Midsize Construction Inc.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Just as a pair of Millers from Illinois, Andy and Julie, dominated the Thursday features at Harrah’s Philadelphia, on Friday a Buckeye Miller, Hall of Famer David Miller, pulled the same feat, winning both divisions of the $12,600 top purse events and the $11,200 fast-class featured contest.
 
In the headliner for pacing distaffs, the Sweet Lou sophomore mare Ginger Tree Liz pushed her recent tally to two wins in three starts, circling wide off of cover approaching the stretch, making the lead, and then withstanding Tava (coincidentally driven by Andy Miller), who was on her back, by three-quarters of a length while lowering her mark to 1:53. Miller drove the filly to victory for hot trainer Steve Cook and the ownership of Sam Beegle, Ginger Tree Ventures LLC, Double D Racing Stable, and Reber-Chesen Stable.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The wife/husband team of trainer Julie and driver Andy Miller swept the featured trotting events at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, including the $14,400 co-features, one with a filly they campaigned with success on the Grand Circuit last year, and the other with a horse who just came to their barn.
 
The Archangel gelding Angel Nation was unraced at two, but he progressed enough at three to be second in the Ontario Super Final. He qualified at Woodbine Mohawk, then moved down to the Millers and, off 34 days, qualified in 1:54.4 at first asking. He was even better on Thursday, blazing down the road in :28.2, :58, 1:26, and 1:54.1, a new mark, holding off the highly-regarded stakeswinner Hillexotic, who was also making his debut at four. The victorious Angel Nation seems on the verge of greater things for owners Legendary Standardbred Farm and Ted Macdonell, his trainer in Ontario.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Bar Hopping sophomore trotting filly Bella Bellini cemented the impression that she could be one of the top-level misses in her division with a Wednesday afternoon victory at Harrah’s Chester in 1:53 – lowering by a tick her own standard as the fastest three-year-old trotter in North American harness racing, regardless of sex or track size.
 
Dexter Dunn let the stunning filly roll to the lead past the :28.3 quarter, and then proceeded to put up fractions of :56 and 1:23.4 – a :55.1 middle half, losing any opposition down the backstretch. She continued home unaccompanied, missing the local divisional track record of Whose Blues by two-fifths of a second in only her third seasonal start.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series circuit makes its local 2021 debut during the Sunday twilight card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono – and they’ve saved the best for first, as the “glamour division” three-year-old pacing colts kick off the Pennsy-sired action at the mountain track with three divisions of Sire Stakes and seven divisions of Stallion Series action.
 
2020’s Two-Year-Old Pacing Colt of the Year Perfect Sting makes his seasonal bow in the ninth race Sire Stakes division after posting wins in all ten of his freshman starts. The fastest-pedigreed Standardbred horse (by 1:46 pacer Always B Miki out of the 1:47 mare Shebestingin) has put in qualifiers of 1:52.2 and 1:52.3 for trainer Joe Holloway in preparation for this contest, and David Miller will be driving the colt from post five in the field of seven.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Dragon Again four-year-old horse Gray Dragon, in career form, gained into a :26.2 last quarter to overhaul 2019 Meadowlands Pace winner Best In Show in 1:49.2 in one of three $15,300 featured contests Tuesday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
 
Mark MacDonald sent Gray Dragon right to the lead early, encouraging other leavers to tuck, then ceded command to favored Best In Shadow when that one, favored in his 2021 debut, brushed to command past the :27 quarter. Best In Show (whose dam, Put On A Show, was in the news today as she was sold after being bred to Tall Dark Stranger to a Hunterton Farms-based group) put up good midrace fractions of :54.4 and 1:23, then really turned on the afterburners in the lane, but Gray Dragon had an even higher gear, coming his last eighth likely better than :13 to go by the pacesetter by a half-length. John Butenschoen, the hottest of trainers at Pocono lately, has found the key to this one for Emerald Highlands Farm.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Both the 2020 Dan Patch awardwinner in the two-year-old trotting filly category, Anoka Hanover, and the O’Brien awardwinner in that division, Donna Soprano, were successful in qualifying races at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, as was the O’Brien winner for two-year-old pacing fillies, Scarlett Hanover.
 
Anoka Hanover, a Donato Hanover filly who was also successful in a Philly qualifier last week, won Tuesday in 1:56.1, coming her own back fractions in :56 - :27.4. A winner in 10-of-14 at two, including the Goldsmith Maid, Kindergarten Final, and both Lexington Grand Circuit stakes, Anoka Hanover was driven by Todd McCarthy for trainer Noel Daley, the latter co-owner with Caviart Farms, Crawford Farms Racing, and L. A. Express Stable LLC.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – In the middle of a “five race win streak” at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, driver George Napolitano Jr. won with the Explosive Matter gelding Lindy’s Big Bang in 1:55.2 in taking the faster of two $12,800 claiming handicap trot features.
 
Napolitano, the track’s perennial leading driver who won the last two races here on Sunday, sent Lindy’s Big Bang to the lead under the wire for the first time and the pair drew away comfortably late in the Monday opener for the meet’s leading trainer, Gilbert Garcia-Herrera, who is also the owner. Napolitano then went on to take the second and third races on Monday in winning five consecutive races over two cards at the mountain track.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The A Rocknroll Dance mare Lady Rocknrolla A was tighter in her second start at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, winning a $11,200 feature for pacing distaffs in 1:54.2 during a soggy Sunday twilight card where the temperature did not exceed 45 degrees.
 
The recent Canadian import and driver James MacDonald were intent on setting the pace in this event, with the favorite putting second choice Royaltywestho in behind her by the :27.2 quarter. A breather to the half in :57.3 was followed by a challenge from Topville Angelina nearing, at and past the 1:25.4 three-quarters, but Lady Rocknrolla A dug in gamely to defeat that challenger for trainer Carmen Auciello and owner Stephen Klunowski.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Favorites won seven of the first eight races at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Saturday afternoon, but then the first three of four divisions of a $120,000 Pennsylvania All-Stars event for three-year-old pacing colts saw the chalk go down to defeat. However, a familiar name, very popular with the crowd, took the final division.
 
One Eight Hundred, the $800,000 yearling by Somebeachsomewhere – Economy Terror, rebounded from his bad-luck loss in the Weiss Final, taking a new mark of 1:50.1 in 46-degree weather. Driver Tim Tetrick moved One Eight Hundred frontwards past the :27.2 quarter, reached the lead and posted middle fractions of :55.3 and 1:23.1, then saw the colt pace home strongly in :27 with only a few taps.