By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – The two-year-old Winning Mister – Pictures Of Millie gelding Tricky Dick won his second straight race in a $10,400 feature on Tuesday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, and his 1:55.4 time was only a second off the divisional track record – not bad for a horse who didn’t break his maiden until October 6.
 
Tricky Dick nosed out Gerard last Tuesday, and these two again were the principals in their race, with Gerard rushing to the lead down the backstretch with Tricky Dick on his tail and able to get into the pocket. In the stretch Matt Kakaley tugged on Tricky Dick’s right line and the baby knew exactly what to do, going by Gerard by three lengths while stamping himself as a horse to watch for owner/trainer/Pennsylvania’s Voice of the County Fairs, Jim McGettigan.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – A hot battle on the front end tired out the favorites and set the $16,000 claiming handicap pacing feature up for a closer, with the Mach Three gelding Burning Midnight filling that role nicely as he won the Saturday afternoon feature at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in 1:51.1.
 
Mark With a K, the second choice, was insistent on controlling the pace from the pole, putting up a searing :25.3 opening quarter to force tucks, then got a breather to a :55 half. Favored Razor’s Edge then charged up first-over on him, with those two engaging in a 1:22.2 battle to the three-quarters.

​CHESTER PA – A trio of $11,200 events for developing younger horses, two on the trot and one on the pace, topped the action on Friday at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
 
In the faster of the two sections of the featured trot, the newcomer Stravinsky made short work of his opposition, flying home in :56.2 - :28 for an easy 1:55.2 victory, 1¼ lengths ahead of favored Romanee Blue Chip. Andrew McCarthy, top driver of the afternoon with four victories, handled the impressive sophomore Sebastian K S gelding for trainer Andrew Harris and owners Thomas and Elizabeth Rankin.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Yankee Glide gelding Yankees Beast, a noted closer, got his preferred second-over trip and had the most late in winning the $13,600 feature on the “Trottin’ Thursday” card at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
 
Marcus Miller swung the Anette Lorentzon trainee three-wide late on the far turn and overhauled pacesetting Macmorris Hanover by a length at the end of the 1:54.3 mile. Patriarch Hanover, parked a long way before making the lead and then surrendering it to Macmorris Hanover, was third, another three-quarters of a length behind the winner of two of his last three starts, who is owned by Anna Kristina Lorentzon.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Driver George Napolitano Jr. and trainer Gilbert Garcia-Owen captured both of the pacing features on “Distaff Day” Wednesday at Harrah’s Philadelphia as part of a giant day for both horsemen.
 
Despite having to go first-over against pacesetting favorite Machnhope in the $14,400 top-line event, the veteran McArdle mare Lispatty was able to get to the line first, and the seven-year-old did it in 1:49.4 to take a new lifetime mark. After a classic “ding-dong” stretch battle, Lispatty proved a half-length better to earn her 40th career victory and raise her bankroll to $986,726. Garcia-Owen is also the owner of the classy pacer.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Surfer Beach may be starting to pace into his considerable pedigree, as he won a $10,400 pace on Tuesday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
 
An altered son of Somebeachsomewhere out of the $2.3M+-winning Southwind Tempo, two-time divisional champion, Surfer Beach did not race at two, and he won only one of his first thirteen races at three. But he has now won two of his last four, including this 1:52.3 triumph, where he went to the front for the track’s leading driver, George Napolitano Jr., and proved much the best, winning by 5 1/2  lengths for trainer Brian Malone and owner Peter Paul Venturini.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
​WILKES-BARRE PA – Loud Splash, a son of Thinking Out Loud who was the longest shot on the board in the $16,000 claiming handicap pacing feature at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Saturday afternoon, came from way back to post a 1:51.2 victory in a race where seven of the eight entrants were within 1¼ lengths of each other at the finish.
 
Despite showing good closing ability in his last four starts, Loud Splash was dismissed at 27-1, probably because he was going up to the track’s highest price level and drew the disadvantageous post six. But driver Jim Taggart Jr. had him out in a good cover flow, tipped him four-wide from sixth at headstretch, and guided him home strongly to win by a head over Burning Midnight, whose cover he followed most of the way, with Daamericansky another head shy coming up the Pocono Pike. But Loud Splash proved most photogenic in the contentious affair for trainer Tee Wine and owner Samuel Abdoo, and now has won three of his last four trips behind the gate.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
​CHESTER PA – On a cold and wet Friday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, over a surface rated “good,” the younger horses took the spotlight, competing in three $11,200 features – two on the trot and one on the pace.
 
The pacing group was dominated by the Captaintreacherous sophomore colt Sea Of Life, whose resume showed a 1:50 victory at The Meadows and a fourth-place finish in his division’s Kentucky stakes final. Here driver George Napolitano Jr. kept him off a wicked early battle (:27 and :54.4), brushed him to the lead well before a 1:22.2 three-quarters, and went on to an in-hand 1¾ lengths victory over Bipbopnallie, a Pennsylvania fairs star, in 1:50.4, a remarkable time under the circumstances; the third-place horse was some thirteen lengths behind this duo. Tony Alagna trains the winner for Brittany Farms LLC, Marvin Katz, Brad Grant, and Captain Kirk Racing.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
​CHESTER PA – As is often the case at Harrah’s Philadelphia, the front end was the place to be for the winners of the two featured trots during the track’s Thursday afternoon program, raced over a “sloppy” surface rated two seconds off par.
 
The Donato Hanover colt Big Nudge scratched into the $12,800 top purse event from the “also eligible” list and had the dreaded post eight, but then had his load lightened considerably when there were three more scratches from the programmed starters. David Miller promptly sent him to the top in the short field, and the pair had no trouble controlling the throttle, coming home in :28.4 to post a 1:57.1 victory by 1¾ lengths over Lucy Mae Hanover. Jake Leamon conditions the three-year-old for Charles Elliott, A And B Stable, and Hutt Racing Stable.