By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The co-featured $11,200 trots at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Tuesday afternoon both resulted in 1:53.4 clockings, so we will defer to seniority in listing the winners’ accomplishments.
 
14-year-old TSM Photo Bugger made the lead, yielded for the pocket to sit behind a hot pace (:28, :56, 1:24), then came out in the stretch to catch odds-on pacesetter MacMorris Hanover by a neck. It was the 61st career victory for the S J’s Photo gelding, a winner of $868,681, who was driven by Fern Paquet Jr. for trainer Karen Fread and owner Theodore Tomson.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The $1,294,100 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship card for three-year-olds on Saturday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono has the star power one would expect – the winner of the Hambletonian Oaks, the winner of the Yonkers Trot, the winner of the recent Lynch Championship at Pocono – and Captain Corey, Hambletonian winner, 2020 PA Stakes Championship winner, #2 in the current national polls, in a $50,000 PaSS consolation event in the Daily Double.
 
Each division’s Championship race goes for $253,000, and its corresponding consolation race goes for $50,000. Let’s take a look at how each division shapes up:

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The American Harness Drivers Club amateur series held a Championship and a consolation race during the Sunday twilight card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, and on a night not favorable to speed, 2013 Amateur Driver of the Year Steve Oldford was able to overcome a long grinding trip with the millionaire Zooming to catch three-time Amateur Driver kingpin Bob Hechkoff and Southwind Frost in 1:56 and take the $15,000 Championship event.
 
Hechkoff had won wire-to-wire in last week’s AHDC race at Pocono, and he pursued the same path to the winners circle, with a changing cast of characters behind him until Oldford got Zooming clear and in gear down the back. The pacesetter’s lead was steady whittled down in the last three-eighths, and Oldford kept the 13-year-old to business and guided him home a length to the good for his 69th career victory. Amber Buter trains the veteran, who is co-owned by Oldford Racing LLC and Buter Farm Inc.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Hambletonian Oaks winner Bella Bellini, making her first start since winning that classic three starts ago, got away last against very tough opposition and made up a little ground but not enough as Big Oil, a son of Father Patrick, sped to a 1:51.3 lifetime best in a $19,300 fast-class trot at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono Saturday afternoon.
 
Big Oil, who set a world record for the fastest trot dead-heat ever when he tied with Real Cool Sam in 1:52.1 at Lexington in 2019, beat that mark by taking control of this race from the start, laying down quick splits of :26.1, :55, and 1:23.1, with Bella Bellini trying to get close uncovered, but coming up short. Andy Miller kept Big Oil burning to the wire to be 1½ lengths clear over the Ms Versatility mare P L Notsonice while going three-fifths of a second faster than the Oaks. Bella Bellini was timed in 1:52.3, just two-fifths behind her Oaks-winning time, off three weeks, on a five-eighth mile track, and uncovered from the outside post against veteran stock .

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
INDIANA PA – The Pennsylvania Fair Circuit came to this westcentral Pennsylvania town, famous as the home of actor Jimmy Stewart, for two days of harness racing, with Thursday devoted to two-year-olds and Friday to three-year-olds.
 
The highlight of Thursday’s racing was that both divisions of the “A” Fair Sire Stakes for two-year-old trotting fillies came within sight of the local divisional track record of 2:05.4, first established by Lady Broadway in 2012 and then equaled by Ridinonarainbow in 2018. The Explosive Matter – Truffles miss Ruffle My Truffles went first and won in 2:06.3 for trainer/driver Roger Hammer and owners Glenn Dyke and LeBlanc Racing Inc. In the very next race, the Southwind Frank – Tymal Elvira filly Till Im Gone won in 2:06.2 for driver Wayne Long, trainer Bob Rougeaux III and the Brocious Racing Stable Inc.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Last Saturday, on the Sun Stakes Saturday card at Pocono, the McCarthy brothers won seven of the program’s fourteen races. The brothers are still in great sulky form, winning seven of the fourteen races at Harrah’s Philadelphia Friday – the second time they accomplished the feat in six days --with Andrew taking the lead position this time with five wins.
 
Andrew’s quintuple elevated him to second behind runaway leader Tim Tetrick in the current Philly driving standings with 96 wins on the year, with Todd not too far behind at 87. Maybe Eastern Pennsylvania is just a good climate for driving brothers, as George Napolitano Jr. and Anthony Napolitano rank 1-2 at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Two sons of superstar Muscle Hill, Southwind Sylvestr and Cricket Fashion, were successful in the $14,400 trotting co-features on Thursday afternoon.
 
The sophomore colt Cricket Fashion reduced his mark to 1:54.2 in the faster cut, sitting third-inside and then starting the outside tier late on the backstretch, going up to pacesetter Magic Cape and beating him by two lengths. Tim Tetrick drove the Jim Campbell trainee for Fashion Farms LLC, living up to the backing that sent him off as the favorite.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The three pacing winners of the four $12,600 featured events on Wednesday at Harrah’s Philadelphia all took lifetime marks in their events designed for up-and-coming horses.
 
Fastest winner was the Sweet Lou sophomore gelding Tapped Teen, who won by seven lengths in 1:51.2 in one of the two splits for male pacers. Favored Comanche Creek broke before the start, but as powerful a performance as Tapped Teen gave, the former may not have been able to contend in any instance, as Todd McCarthy moved “Teen” to the lead past the quarter then rolled him home in :55.2. Trainer/owner Aaron Lambert had the three-year-old in peak form coming off of a scratch and a break before that.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – A trio of distinguished mares, with lifetime earnings of $4,684,907, put in distinguished appearances during Wednesday morning racing at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono – and all three of them were trained by Nancy Takter.
 
The biggest earner ($3,142,936) in the group is the Muscle Hill six-year-old Manchego, currently #1 in the Top Ten polls. Dexter Dunn came to Pocono to drive, and he sent Manchego to the front in very moderate splits of :29.4 and :58.3, then shifted into a faster gear, and the mare hit the three-quarters in 1:25.3 and the finish in 1:53.1 – a 54.3 back half. She remains in fine shape for Black Horse Racing, and fans eagerly await a matchup with archrival Atlanta, who won the Sebastian K S Invitational here this past Saturday in a track record 1:50.1.
 
There are twelve horses declared in the Roses Are Red pace for mares at Woodbine Mohawk Park a week from Saturday. Nine will go in a prep race there this Saturday; a tenth, divisional leader Lyons Sentinel, beat male rivals at Philly this past Sunday in 1:50; and the other two, JK First Lady ($853,900) and Peaky Sneaky ($688,071), were in their own private qualifier at Pocono on Wednesday, with JK First Lady, a daughter of Western Ideal out of former Horse of the Year JK She’salady, rallying out of the pocket for Dunn, Takter, and 3 Brothers Stables to catch Peaky Sneaky (Matt Kakaley) by a half-length in 1:50.3 after the latter had put up splits of :28, 56, and 1:23.3.
 
These qualifiers (no sound) can be seen through the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen’s website on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVUbg3ZM9bmGEygdJcgtlcw.