WILKES-BARRE PA – Eazy Pass justified her backing as the heaviest sort of favorite by brushing to the lead nearing the three-quarters and going on to tie her mark of 1:54.3 in the $40,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for sophomore trotting fillies Tuesday afternoon at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
32-1 shot P L Olivia was hustled away and put outsiders in behind her before the :27.3 quarter, and she went on to parked second choice quarter-mover Trip Sevens, leaving that rival out in the air past the :56.4 half. Eazy Pass, whom Dexter Dunn had moved out behind Trip Sevens perhaps in anticipation of her clearing, thus had the second-over journey, but before the 1:26 third panel the victorious filly was on her way to the lead, which she maintained to the wire. Eazy Pass won by four lengths over the resilient P L Olivia, with Frankly My Dear third.
The partnership of trainer John Butenschoen and driver Tyler Buter clicked three times on the Tuesday card to run their Monday/Tuesday total record to 7-5-1-1 – all with three-year-olds making their first starts of the year. The Donato Hanover gelding Truffles Too and a filly by that sire, Melania, both won in 1:54.4. Fastest three-year-old trotter on the card was the Deweycheatumnhowe gelding Dewey Arnold, now winner of two straight here and home Tuesday in 1:54.1, just a tick off the fastest sophomore trotting mile anywhere this year, for driver Jason Bartlett and trainer David Dewhurst. (Four April trotting miles in under 1:55f by three-year-olds is a pretty noteworthy feat.)
Racing resumes on Kentucky Derby Day Saturday at 12:30 p.m.; joining Pocono’s temporary expatriate colony from Ontario on Saturday will be 2017 World Driving Champion James Macdonald. Program pages will be available at https://www.phha.org/downsmsppps.html.