Photo: Curtis Salonick
By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
WILKES-BARE PA – Matt Kakaley, three-time defending dashwinning driving champion at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, recorded the 7000th visit to the winners circle as a driver when he guided Franzo to Victory Lane in the second race at the northeast Pennsylvania oval on Monday afternoon.
Horses whom Kakaley, 37, has driven have earned $117.4M for their owners, putting him 22nd on the all-time list of moneywinning drivers, with many more years of success in front of him. Last year, horses he drove earned a personal yearly best of nearly $9.9 million, tenth-best figure in North America, and he was sixth on the continent with 539 victories, just below his personal high of 2023, when he triumphed 561 times. This year he is also tenth in North America in the driving earnings category. Kakaley has captured six driving crowns at Pocono during his career – four as the winningest driver and two UDR trophies.
In addition to Kakaley’s milestone 7000th win, Pocono also featured eight $16,000 divisions of the Game Of Claims Trotting Series for horses valued this week at $25,000. Anthony Napolitano guided half of the octet of winners; three of the eight repeated after their first prelim victories; and five of them changed barns after their success Monday.
Three of “ANap”’s winners changed hands. Included in that number is Golden Compass, claimed out of a victorious first round race, and then again claimed after Napolitano won with him in 1:55 (by 10¾ lengths) for trainer Herbert Lux III. Anthony’s other winners who will be relocating are Wallet, taken from trainer Travis Alexander after the fastest GOC division in which he earned a new mark of 1:53.4, and Macmorris Hanover, overcoming the outside post eight in 1:54.4 for trainer Peter Pellegrino, who had two wins in Monday’s series and three overall, but losing this winner to a claim.
The fourth GOC win for Anthony was by far the closest contest of the day, as he got the most after a pocket trip from Yo Lucky Moni to win by a nose over Run Run Elegant in 1:58.3 for trainer Maria Alvarez – and at $36.20 the only series horse to pay better than 5-1.
Another horse claimed last week and this, and winning both times, was Altus Hanover, also stopping the timer in 1:55 while driven by Anthony’s brother George for his one-week trainer, Peter Pellegrino. The third two-for-two horse in this Game Of Claims event is In My Dreams, driven by Braxten Boyd to victory in 1:55.2 and now a winner of three straight overall for trainer Lou Pena.
Boyd added a second series sulky success when he won in 1:55.2 with Chamba, the fifth winner to be claimed, for trainer Tee Wine. Also, Do It Again IT went the fastest mile of his short North American career when he won another section in 1:54.4 for driver Tyler Buter and trainer Hunter Oakes.
Racing resumes on Saturday at Pocono with a 1 p.m. card, headlined by the $50,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for three-year-old pacing males in the tenth slot, with five of the eight entrants having two preliminary wins but nobody achieving a sweep of the three prelims. Their filly counterparts will have four $20,000 divisions of their Weiss’s second leg, with three first-round winners going head-to-head-to-head in race four. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
WILKES-BARE PA – Matt Kakaley, three-time defending dashwinning driving champion at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, recorded the 7000th visit to the winners circle as a driver when he guided Franzo to Victory Lane in the second race at the northeast Pennsylvania oval on Monday afternoon.
Horses whom Kakaley, 37, has driven have earned $117.4M for their owners, putting him 22nd on the all-time list of moneywinning drivers, with many more years of success in front of him. Last year, horses he drove earned a personal yearly best of nearly $9.9 million, tenth-best figure in North America, and he was sixth on the continent with 539 victories, just below his personal high of 2023, when he triumphed 561 times. This year he is also tenth in North America in the driving earnings category. Kakaley has captured six driving crowns at Pocono during his career – four as the winningest driver and two UDR trophies.
In addition to Kakaley’s milestone 7000th win, Pocono also featured eight $16,000 divisions of the Game Of Claims Trotting Series for horses valued this week at $25,000. Anthony Napolitano guided half of the octet of winners; three of the eight repeated after their first prelim victories; and five of them changed barns after their success Monday.
Three of “ANap”’s winners changed hands. Included in that number is Golden Compass, claimed out of a victorious first round race, and then again claimed after Napolitano won with him in 1:55 (by 10¾ lengths) for trainer Herbert Lux III. Anthony’s other winners who will be relocating are Wallet, taken from trainer Travis Alexander after the fastest GOC division in which he earned a new mark of 1:53.4, and Macmorris Hanover, overcoming the outside post eight in 1:54.4 for trainer Peter Pellegrino, who had two wins in Monday’s series and three overall, but losing this winner to a claim.
The fourth GOC win for Anthony was by far the closest contest of the day, as he got the most after a pocket trip from Yo Lucky Moni to win by a nose over Run Run Elegant in 1:58.3 for trainer Maria Alvarez – and at $36.20 the only series horse to pay better than 5-1.
Another horse claimed last week and this, and winning both times, was Altus Hanover, also stopping the timer in 1:55 while driven by Anthony’s brother George for his one-week trainer, Peter Pellegrino. The third two-for-two horse in this Game Of Claims event is In My Dreams, driven by Braxten Boyd to victory in 1:55.2 and now a winner of three straight overall for trainer Lou Pena.
Boyd added a second series sulky success when he won in 1:55.2 with Chamba, the fifth winner to be claimed, for trainer Tee Wine. Also, Do It Again IT went the fastest mile of his short North American career when he won another section in 1:54.4 for driver Tyler Buter and trainer Hunter Oakes.
Racing resumes on Saturday at Pocono with a 1 p.m. card, headlined by the $50,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for three-year-old pacing males in the tenth slot, with five of the eight entrants having two preliminary wins but nobody achieving a sweep of the three prelims. Their filly counterparts will have four $20,000 divisions of their Weiss’s second leg, with three first-round winners going head-to-head-to-head in race four. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
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