 Photos: Curtis Salonick |
By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
WILKES-BARRE PA -- $185,066 was on the line in competition for Pennsylvania-sired three-year-old trotting males Sunday night at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pocono, as the second prelim leg saw two divisions of PA Sire Stakes and four cuts of PA Stallion Series action contested over a track that was rated “sloppy” for all of the stakes races.
No horse was able to repeat in the Sire Stakes, but the early leader in the section would now have to be Go Dog Go, a Greenshoe colt who was third in the Breeders Crown Final and Valley Victory last year and who made a smashing 2025 debut to win in 1:52.3 – equaling the fastest trotting mile of the year at Pocono, including aged stock and despite the sloppy going.
Driven by Todd McCarthy for trainer Carter Pinske and owners Wiesman Farms LLC and Al Libfeld, Go Dog Go sat third behind fractions of :28.1, :57.1, and 1:25.1 before being unleashed, and the powerful trotter took it from there to win by 4¾ lengths, stepping his own back fractions in :55 - :27 while lowering his mark. And perhaps the scariest news of all? “He had the earplugs still in at the wire.”
In the other Sires Stakes section, another son of Greenshoe, the colt Meshuggah, after seconds in a Sire Stake and an All-Stars division, chalked up his first win of the year while reducing his speed badge to 1:54.1. Scott Zeron, the evening’s big winner with four visits to the winners circle, worked out a pocket trip behind Big Shoes, a first-round PaSS winner who had moved to the lead past the :28.1 opener and then posted middle clockings of :58 and 1:26.4.
Meshuggah hit high gear at the third pole and proved game while going his own back fractions in :56 – 27.1 to win a close contest – he triumphed by a length, with Greenma photoing out The Fix Is In, the other first-round winner, for second, ahead of Big Shoes and Frank Leahy, all within two lengths at the wire. Meshuggah is trained by Marcus Melander for Courant Inc.
Three of the four Stallion Series divisions were clocked in 1:55.1, but it was the one that went in 1:55.2 that produced the only StS two-time winner – the Bar Hopping gelding Gimlet Hanover, trained and owned by D. R. Ackerman and driven by Jim Marohn Jr. to a lifetime best. Gimlet Hanover held off a late rush by favored Non Disclosure to win by the slimmest of margins.
Of the three 1:55.1 winners, the one taking a new mark was the International Moni colt Golazo, who pulled off a 14-1 engine upset for Pocono’s top driver Tyler Buter and trainer Jill Roland, the latter co-owner with David Neilson. International Moni picked up a second StS sire credit with the gelding Wapiti Blue Chip, driven by Braxten Boyd for trainer Mahlon Martin and owners Ashley Burslem, Steven Mullen, and Gregory Garton. And Braxten Boyd picked up a second StS credit by rallying the Greenshoe gelding Lefties Righties from way off the pace to overhaul Give Me A Yankee for trainer Jenny Melander and the partnership of Chuck Sylvester, Charles Stansley, Lenavitt Investments LLC, and John Licausi.
Racing will continue at The Downs with Monday and Tuesday cards both beginning at 1 p.m. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
WILKES-BARRE PA -- $185,066 was on the line in competition for Pennsylvania-sired three-year-old trotting males Sunday night at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pocono, as the second prelim leg saw two divisions of PA Sire Stakes and four cuts of PA Stallion Series action contested over a track that was rated “sloppy” for all of the stakes races.
No horse was able to repeat in the Sire Stakes, but the early leader in the section would now have to be Go Dog Go, a Greenshoe colt who was third in the Breeders Crown Final and Valley Victory last year and who made a smashing 2025 debut to win in 1:52.3 – equaling the fastest trotting mile of the year at Pocono, including aged stock and despite the sloppy going.
Driven by Todd McCarthy for trainer Carter Pinske and owners Wiesman Farms LLC and Al Libfeld, Go Dog Go sat third behind fractions of :28.1, :57.1, and 1:25.1 before being unleashed, and the powerful trotter took it from there to win by 4¾ lengths, stepping his own back fractions in :55 - :27 while lowering his mark. And perhaps the scariest news of all? “He had the earplugs still in at the wire.”
In the other Sires Stakes section, another son of Greenshoe, the colt Meshuggah, after seconds in a Sire Stake and an All-Stars division, chalked up his first win of the year while reducing his speed badge to 1:54.1. Scott Zeron, the evening’s big winner with four visits to the winners circle, worked out a pocket trip behind Big Shoes, a first-round PaSS winner who had moved to the lead past the :28.1 opener and then posted middle clockings of :58 and 1:26.4.
Meshuggah hit high gear at the third pole and proved game while going his own back fractions in :56 – 27.1 to win a close contest – he triumphed by a length, with Greenma photoing out The Fix Is In, the other first-round winner, for second, ahead of Big Shoes and Frank Leahy, all within two lengths at the wire. Meshuggah is trained by Marcus Melander for Courant Inc.
Three of the four Stallion Series divisions were clocked in 1:55.1, but it was the one that went in 1:55.2 that produced the only StS two-time winner – the Bar Hopping gelding Gimlet Hanover, trained and owned by D. R. Ackerman and driven by Jim Marohn Jr. to a lifetime best. Gimlet Hanover held off a late rush by favored Non Disclosure to win by the slimmest of margins.
Of the three 1:55.1 winners, the one taking a new mark was the International Moni colt Golazo, who pulled off a 14-1 engine upset for Pocono’s top driver Tyler Buter and trainer Jill Roland, the latter co-owner with David Neilson. International Moni picked up a second StS sire credit with the gelding Wapiti Blue Chip, driven by Braxten Boyd for trainer Mahlon Martin and owners Ashley Burslem, Steven Mullen, and Gregory Garton. And Braxten Boyd picked up a second StS credit by rallying the Greenshoe gelding Lefties Righties from way off the pace to overhaul Give Me A Yankee for trainer Jenny Melander and the partnership of Chuck Sylvester, Charles Stansley, Lenavitt Investments LLC, and John Licausi.
Racing will continue at The Downs with Monday and Tuesday cards both beginning at 1 p.m. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
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