By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA –Simon Allard, Matt Kakaley, and George Napolitano Jr. each had a driving triple on the Tuesday afternoon card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, and among them they swept the Rainbow Pick 5 bet’s races, the last five on the card. Since the biggest win price in the sequence was $14.60 and three were under $6.00, the carryover pool for Rainbow Pick 5, which requires a bettor to have a unique ticket with all five winners to take down the big jackpot, grew to $239,477.19 for Saturday afternoon’s card as there were multiple consolation winners.
 
Tuesday’s driving triple brought Napolitano’s tally for the week at Pocono to seventeen in four cards. “George Nap” has driven exactly 250 winners in the period since July 1 (for comparison, North American leader Aaron Merriman has had 208 in the last three months through the Tuesday afternoon card at The Meadows), and George will be in action on the last day of September tomorrow at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
 
With the coming of October, Pocono reduces its basic schedule to three cards a week during the month, with racing starting at 12:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Tuesdays and 5 p.m. on Sundays.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – George Napolitano Jr. and his brother Anthony, the two winningest drivers at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, captured nine of the fourteen races on the Monday afternoon card – and still they had to share the spotlight with a trainer who boosted her career win total to 32.
 
Brianne Good, a 36-year-old trainer from Sayre PA and a former participant in the Racing Under Saddle series, is campaigning her stock at Pocono now that Tioga Downs, near her home, has closed for the season, and Good sent out three winners on the Monday card, using a different driver aboard each winner. Tyler Buter drove Big Mach to a $49.80 victory in race five; George Napolitano was behind favored $4.80 winner BJ Lorado in the very next race; and then Anthony Napolitano brought home $51.00 bomber Ev’s Girl in the thirteenth contest.

​WILKES-BARRE PA – Vorst was best in the $14,000 featured pace at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono during the Sunday twilight card, springing a 16-1 upset while equaling her lifetime mark of 1:51.3. 
 
Its Mesmerise N made two moves to control the pace while posting early fractions of :26.4 and :56, with favored Eclipse Me N going up first-over with Vorst behind her. There was a :27 major-league duel in the third quarter, with Vorst gapping her cover a bit, but she rallied steadily while wide in the stretch and caught Eclipse Me N by a head, with six of the seven entrants within a length at the wire and the other beaten only two lengths. Marcus Miller, a three-time winner on the card, drove Vorst for owner/trainer Gilbert Garcia-Herrera.

​BLOOMSBURG PA – Trainer/driver Todd Schadel earned an historic “double dip” into the Pennsylvania Fair Circuit record book while racing at the Bloomsburg Fair this Friday and Saturday – the first day he guided the gelding Top Me Off to victory in 1:59.4, the first “magic mile” ever on the circuit by a two-year-old trotter, and the second day he won with the three-year-old gelding Manhattanup No Ice in 1:58.1, the fastest trotting mile on the books in the annals of Pennsylvania fair racing.
 
Manhattanup No Ice, a son of Andover Hall, had to fight hard for the victory in his record mile. After a :28.4 quarter, Todd’s brother Tony came three-wide with Focus Pocus to challenge “No Ice” before the :59.3 half, with Roger Hammer and No Name Yankee (who had trotted in 1:58.2 at Bloomsburg three weeks ago) in the pocket. The battle raged past a 1:29 three-quarters and through the stretch, where Manhattanup No Ice, also owned by Todd Schadel, got a half-length decision in the record time, with No Name Yankee also charted as just a half length off in the epic mile. Shark Kosmos (2003), Plumb, and No Name Yankee (both this year) had shared the former 1:58.2 trotting standard.

​WILKES-BARRE PA – The Bettor’s Delight gelding Bellows Binge made a successful bow for trainer Clay Faurot Jr. and owner Chelsey Faurot, rallying from the pocket to overhaul favored Daamericansky while taking the $16,000 claiming handicap pacing feature Saturday afternoon at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
 
Matt Kakaley and Bellows Binge pushed Daamericansky much of a :26 opening quarter before yielding for the two-hole, then sat behind middle splits of :55.2 and 1:22.4. With no first-over horse lurking nearby, Kakaley had plenty of time to move the winner of $249,623 to the outside, and he went his own last quarter in :27.1 while taking a new lifetime mark of 1:50.1 with the three quarter length victory.

​WILKES-BARRE PA -- The carryover pool for the Rainbow Pick 5 will be $218,268 going into the Saturday afternoon card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

To score the big money, a player must have a unique ticket containing the winners of the last five races at Pocono on a given card. If there are multiple winners any given day, a portion of what was bet that day is divided among those multiple winners, and a portion enters the carryover; if no one picks all five winners in a given day , the entire amount bet is added to the carryover jackpot.

The first race at Pocono on Saturday is 12:30 p.m. The Rainbow Pick 5 races will include a pair of $14,000 events, one trot and one pace, for the fastest seasoned performers at the track.

​CHESTER PA – Three-year-old fillies were spotlighted in $150,000 worth of Liberty Bell stakes series action during the Friday afternoon card at Harrah’s Philadelphia, with two divisions for pacers and three for trotters.
 
The first pace saw the ultraconsistent Rocknificent, competitive not only within the state but with the North American elite, handle a late pocket charge from Drama Act to win in 1:51.3. Scott Zeron sent the daughter of Captaintreacherous out of the $2M+-winning Rocklamation, who was second choice at 3-2 to Drama Act’s 1-2, to the lead from post six, with Drama Act from the rail maintaining the pocket through pedestrian fractions of :27.1, :56.4, and 1:24.3. When both the fillies’ pedals were pushed to the metal, however, they dueled home in :27, with Rocknificent holding off her rival by a neck to run her seasonal record to 10-5-2-3-$242,530 and her lifetime tally to 23-10-4-7-$524,036 for trainer Linda Toscano and the partnership of Enviro Stables LTD, South Mountain Stables, and Little E LLC.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Cantab Hall gelding Mississippi Storm was given a top trip from post seven by driver Pat Berry and went on to win the $14,400 featured trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia Thursday afternoon in 1:53.4.
 
Figuring his odds would not be good in sitting next-to-last in the eight-horse field early, Berry got some early speed out of the Tom Fanning trainee and tucked in fifth as Vic’s Winner went to the lead before the :28.1 quarter, only to be replaced on top by the favored Max, who got the field to the half in :56.4.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Liberty Bell stakes series commenced its annual fall run at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, with over $160,000 in purses offered to two-year-old fillies on both gaits.
 
There were three divisions for pacers, and the chalk won all three – though the heaviest favorite of all gave the crowd some tension before they could get their nickel profit for every win dollar bet. Grace Hill, second in her Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship behind Blue Diamond Eyes (who won the Kentucky program’s final this past Sunday) looked to be sailing along for driver Todd McCarthy after setting fractions of :28.2, :56.1, and 1:24.2.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The sophomore pacing colt Scootnroll, unraced at two, remained undefeated in seven career starts with a 1:52.3 victory in a $10,400 conditioned pace at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Tuesday afternoon.
 
A son of Roll With Joe out of the $800G+-winning mare Billmar Scooter, Scootnroll opened his career with five wins in Excelsior B races throughout New York State, including a 1:52.1 win at Vernon Downs. Purchased before his next start by Rick and Geoffrey Howles and now under the care of John Hallett, Scootnroll won an overnight at Tioga easily, and upon coming to Pocono was reunited with driver Tyler Buter, his regular pilot in New York.