By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – “Team Orange Crush” swept the two trotting features at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon, with the $15,300 top purse event seeing the red-hot Archangel four-year-old gelding Angel Nation come within a fifth of a second of his group’s track record with a powerful 1:52.1 victory.
 
Driver Tyler Miller “went to the front and improved his position from there,” as the saying goes, with Angel Nation putting up fractions of :27, :55.4, and 1:24. Favored Eva Dairpet FR was advancing uncovered, and the talented Hayek was well-placed in the pocket, but Angel Nation’s sheer speed was more than enough to hold that pair off while coming within a fifth of a second of the 2019 mark set by Scirocco Rob. A winner of four straight, Angel Nation looks headed for better things, with Julie Miller conditioning the streaking diamondgaiter for the Legendary Standardbred Farm and Ted MacDonnell.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
DAYTON PA – The Somebeachsomewhere sophomore pacing filly Tonianne tied the 1:58.4 track record for her group during a 2-day Sire Stakes racing event at the Dayton (PA) Fairgrounds on Wednesday. She was the only magic miler at the meet, and she became the first horse on the 2021 PA fair circuit to achieve two distinctions: two track records, and two miles in 2:00 or less.
 
In winning at Dayton Tonianne also defeated Tiamogonedancen, who had just shattered the all-age record at Bedford by pacing in 1:55.2 last week. The Dayton track record she tied was first established by More More More in 2019. Tonianne is owned by the Andy Miller Stable Inc. and Louis Willinger.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Three sections of the $12,600 class for horses climbing the class ladder were the highlights as the racing week opened at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Wednesday.
 
The Captaintreacherous three-year-old filly Easyrunner Hanover led at every pole in taking a new mark of 1:52 in the feature section for female pacers. The winner resisted the outside bid of favored Sweet Britches, then parried the late charge of Rocket Roulette by three-quarters of a length for driver Andrew McCarthy, trainer Tony Alagna and owners Brad Grant and Steve Heimbecker while taking her third victory in her last four starts.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The pacer Belmont Major N and the trotter Baldaquin both set lifetime marks in winning their respective $15,300 featured events on the Tuesday afternoon program at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
 
In a race where most of the field was in front at one point or another, the Art Major gelding Belmont Major N was both the first and last leader, getting shuffled to last before mounting a huge stretch charge that carried him to victory in 1:51.3, winning by 1½ lengths with his own last quarter :27.2. It was the first win in two North American starts for the recently-imported Kiwi, who was driven by Tyler Buter for trainer Hunter Oakes and owner Thaddeus Weir.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Downs At Mohegan Sun Pocono carded four $11,700 feature events for two-year-olds on Monday afternoon, one for each combination of sex and gait, and driver Tom Jackson won three of them, including both trots for trainer Fred Grant and owner Russell Williams.
 
The Nuncio - Tuonela gelding Aggiornamento has quickly become the very definition of consistency – he’s made three lifetime starts, and he’s recorded three victories, all of them timed in 1:58.1. Jackson kept the baby behind pacesetter Slave Labour to the stretch, then worked past that one by 1¾ lengths while coming home in a sharp :28.2.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Delishka N paced to her fourth straight victory – and topped the four longest shots in the field in the Superfecta -- in posting a 1:52.1 triumph in the $15,700 distaff featured on a Sunday twilight card over a Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono surface that had been downgraded to “sloppy” by midcard rain.
 
Anthony Napolitano, who led the Pocono drivers colony on the day with four victories, hustled the daughter of Bettor’s Delight away well from the rail, pushing second choice Eclipse Me N well past a :26.2 quarter before yielding for the pocket. Favored Watch Me Now N came up first-over not that far past a :55 half, and the two favorites had a hard battle to a 1:23.1 three-quarters – helping the cause of the outsiders.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE – Jason Bartlett drove the winners of both $35,000 divisions of the Pennsylvania All-Stars contest for two-year-old pacing fillies on Saturday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
 
First to visit Victory Lane was the Captaintreacherous – Sweetest Emotion filly Bermuda, who posted a 1:53.3 mark in her first lifetime purse success. Bartlett had wanted to leave from post three with his baby, but favored Jazzed from the rail and No Foolin in post two left hard to protect forward spots, so Bartlett took back to third and sat while Jazzed put up a quarter of :27.4 and then a soft half of :57.4. Bermuda and Bartlett went up first-over and paced their own third quarter in :27 to gain contention, and in the stretch the winner was able to wear down the pacesetter by a half-length for trainer Nancy Takter and Diamond Creek Racing.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
BEDFORD PA – Tiamogonedancin, a three-year-old pacing filly by A Rocknroll Dance, went the fastest mile ever recorded at the Bedford (PA) Fairgrounds, 1:55.2, on Friday, shattering the oldest all-age track record on the Pennsylvania fair circuit, the 1:56.3 posted by Keystone Famous 35 years ago in 1986.
 
The 1:55.2 clocking also equaled the fastest mile ever paced by a three-year-old filly anywhere on the state fair circuit, first recorded by R N Artist at Bloomsburg in 2003. And it is the fastest mile of the year along the Pennsylvania twicearound circuit.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – All victories are memorable, but one of the three triumphs in the $12,600 features at Harrah’s Philadelphia Friday afternoon may stand out a little bit more for one driver.
 
Michel Heijnen, a horseman from The Netherlands who usually drives only his own small stable of trotters (his previous catch-drive was four years ago), picked up the mount behind a three-year-old filly from trainer Luc Blais and owner Determination – Viva La Deo, a daughter of Somebeachsomewhere out of the $2.2M-winning Rocklamation, a $200,000 yearling. And this was his first-ever drive (in North America, anyway) behind a pacer!