By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Upsets were the rule (until the last few races) during a Sunday twilight card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, with the trend featuring in two $35,000 divisions of a Pennsylvania All-Stars contest for three-year-old pacing colts, taken by Enough Sun ($29.00) and Tell Them Lou ($45.20).
 
Both winners found success in sitting third-inside for most of the mile. The Somebeachsomewhere colt Enough Sun was content to stay behind favored Manticore and Tru Lou most of the way, then backed out late turn to swing wide and passed four horses in the lane to be along by a half length over Manticore in a lifetime best 1:50. David Miller drove the winner, unraced at two and now winner of half his eight starts, for trainer Brian Brown and owner Alan Keith.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
​YORK PA – The Better Caviar sophomore filly Plumb, who last week at Somerset (PA) tied Shark Kosmos’s 17-year-old 1:58.2 all-age trotting record at the Pennsylvania fairs, on Friday came back and smashed a 5-year-old record and a 10-year-old mark by rewriting the fastest trot standard for the York Fair to 2:01.1.
 
Under the guidance of trainer Dave Wade, Plumb went fractions of :29.4, :59.2, and 1:31.2 en route to knocking a fifth of a second off the previous York standard set by a pair of three-year-olds, the colt Southwind Nitro in 2010 and the filly Peoplesayimnogood in 2015. The filly, owned by Wade in partnership with Gerry Brittingham and William Peel III, has now won three straight at the fairs.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
​CHESTER PA – Joe Bongiorno became one of the youngest drivers to achieve 2000 career victories when the 26-year-old sent developing force Nicholas Beach to the lead and just kept pouring it on, winning in a lifetime best 1:49 in the $11,200 featured pace Friday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
 
Bongiorno had his first 100+ winner year in 2012 at age 18 and has not left that club since, peaking with 399 sulky triumphs in 2016. The horses he has driven have earned over $25.2 million, $5.9 million of that last season. Much of his success can be attributed to his relationship with two different trainers – perennial leader Ron Burke, and his sister Jennifer, for whom he handled Nicholas Beach.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – A pair of second choices upended the favorites in the $204,634 fourth and final preliminary leg of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes for two-year-old trotting fillies on Thursday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, including 1:54 track record performance by Insta Glam.
 
Insta Glam’s driver Tim Tetrick yielded the lead to Evening Stroll before the :27.3 first station, but had regained the top with his filly during the moderate second quarter to get to the half in :57.1.
 
Favored Anoka Hanover came up with a vengeance after the leader, trotting her own third split raw in :26.4 to poke a nose in front at the 1:25 three-quarters. But Tetrick kept his filly on the bit and battling, and in the end the big raw move wore down “Anoka,” with Insta Glam winning by 2½ lengths, with Anoka Hanover saving the place by a neck over Evening Stroll. The 1:54 track record clocking took three ticks off the old standard of Cooler Schooner, set seven years minus four days earlier.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono is proud to feature “the glamour division,” the three-year-old pacers, in the last two Pennsylvania All-Stars races of the year, with fillies going postward Saturday afternoon and colts taking to the track for the Sunday twilight card. There will be two $35,000 divisions of stakes performers in both contests.
 
The most hotly-anticipated of the races will be Saturday’s tenth race, which will feature two superstar fillies, Rocknificent and JK First Lady, in a head-to-head challenge. These two were winners in Pennsylvania Sire Stakes competition at Philly nine days ago, with JK First Lady, to be driven by Andrew McCarthy for trainer Nancy Takter, rewriting the divisional track record to 1:49.2 with a powerful late kick, while Rocknificent, driven by Scott Zeron for trainer Linda Toscano, edging out 2019 divisional champ Lyons Sentinel in a stretchlong thriller, with the 1:50.2 mile featuring blistering back fractions of :53.2 - :26.1. Rocknificent has the post edge here, starting from the rail to JK First Lady’s post six in a seven-horse field.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Sister Sledge, last year’s Pennsylvania Sire Stakes two-year-old trotting filly champion, became the only horse in the classification to win two 2020 PaSS prelims when she took one of two $92,392 divisions of the final preliminary for this group in 1:52.4 on Tuesday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sin Pocono.
 
The Father Patrick filly let Next Level Stuff force SVF Blushingbride to take the two-hole going to a :27.2 quarter, then moved outside for driver Brian Sears and grabbed command in front of the stands. The pair hung up middle splits of :55.3 and 1:24.1, then coped with the late move of potential pocket rocket Next Level Stuff by a length. Ron Burke trains the winner of $728,849 for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Jason Melillo, and J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
DAYTON PA – You usually don’t see the phrases “partial rainout” and “the next day saw an all-age track record” in the same sentence, but both activities happened at the Dayton Fair during its Sunday-Monday meet, as a washout of all two-year-old “A” paces and all “B” action in the Sire Stakes on Sunday were followed by something very special.
 
Nome Hanover, a Well Said sophomore gelding trained and driven by Todd Schadel, stunned the horsemen’s community by going out Monday and bettering the all-time pacing standard at the west-central Pennsylvania twice-around with a 1:57.2 mile, knocking 2/5 of a second off of JT Arturo’s 18-year-old mark. The fractions in the historic mile were :29.1, :58.4, and 1:27.2 as Nome Hanover won for the third time on the 2020 fair circuit for the ownership of Todd Schadel, Timothy Hayes, and Dr. Megan Moschgat.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Both Captain Corey and In Range added a third Pennsylvania Sire Stakes victory to their credits in the $206,722 fourth and final preliminary leg of their two-year-old division on the Sunday twilight card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, leaving fans with anticipation about the group’s Championship event, which will be held here on Saturday afternoon, September 5.
 
Captain Corey, a son of Googoo Gaagaa – Luv U All, remained undefeated in three lifetime starts with a 7¼ length victory in 1:55. Trainer/driver Åke Svanstedt could control the pace with easy early fractions of :28.4 and :59.2, and then the big no-nonsense colt strode home in :55.3 - :27.3 and looking every bit of a national-level contender. The winner, who has earned $138,063 in just his three PaSS starts, is co-owned by Åke Svanstedt Inc., SRF Stable, Knutsson Trotting Inc., and Midnight Sun Partners Inc..

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Somebeachsomewhere gelding Filibuster Hanover showed there was still plenty of life in his six-year-old legs, as the winner of $1,770,006 produced a 1:48.1 lifetime best in winning an excellent $20,000 feature Saturday afternoon at the Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
 
There was a mad scramble for the lead in a :25.3 opening quarter, with Jesse Duke N finally reaching the top in front of the stands. Driver Simon Allard, who had gotten an early forward position with “Filibuster,” was on the move before the :54.3 half, and he streaked his own third quarter in a serious-hot :25.4 to clear the pacesetter and start to draw away by the 1:20.4 three-quarters. No one mounted a threatening bid in the stretch, and the 2017 Little Brown Jug winner was 2½ lengths clear of a closing Western Joe at the finish for trainer Ron Burke and the partnership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Joseph Di Scala Jr. and J&T Silva Stables LLC.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
MEYERSDALE PA – Racing returned to the Somerset County Fairgrounds in this southwest Pennsylvania town for the first time since 1953 (a hurricane destroyed the barns after the ’53 season) on Thursday and Friday, with many quick and outstanding performances from both the established and the rising stars of the Pennsylvania Fair circuit, appreciated by many fans who had never seen a harness race.
 
The track surface, rated by many horsemen as potentially one of the fastest at the state’s fairs with some work during the offseason, showed its ability to generate record miles on Friday afternoon, when the Better Caviar sophomore trotting filly Plumb tied the 17-year-old all-time standard for trotting at the state’s fairs with an “A” level PA Fair Sire Stakes victory in 1:58.2. David Wade drove and trains the powerful filly, who equaled the fair trot mark set by Shark Kosmos at Gratz in 2003, and he co-owns her with Gerald Brittingham and William Peel III.