Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen's Association
  • Home
  • Welcome!
  • About the PHHA
  • Join the PHHA
  • PHHA PAC
  • Philanthrophy
  • PA Harness Week
  • PHHA Blog
Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen's Association

MATT KAKALEY STAYS HOT AS POCONO'S GAME OF CLAIMS SERIES OPENS

2/21/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Image: Curtis Salonick
By: Jerry Connors,  Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Despite subfreezing temperatures and a howling headstretch wind, driver Matt Kakaley, who won five races on the opening card of the season at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono last Saturday, came back with his hot hands intact this Saturday, winning four more races, including the fastest divisions of the first preliminary leg in two of the track’s Game Of Claims series.
 
Horses with a base price of $25,000 and $15,000 were each gathered in five divisions, each with purses of $20,000 and $12,500 respectively, of the first of three Game Of Claims preliminaries, looking to earn enough points to make their rich series championship on Saturday, March 12.
​And the speculators on sharp horseflesh were certainly out in force! There were a total of 31 claims on the card, with $658,750 changing hands, including five horses in three of the $25,000-price events, and all five winners at the higher tag moving to new barns via the claiming box.
 
Kakaley brought home the fastest winner in the higher level action, Won Last Feeling, in the final of the day’s fifteen races, setting the pace from the three-eighths and then holding off 27-1 Guinness Panic by a half-length in 1:53.1, last quarter :28. Prior to the final, the fastest division for $25,000 horses had come in the first race, as Jim Morrill Jr. and Caviart Max overcame a first-over trip in 1:53.2. Other winners for this price were pacesetting Bobby K Hill (Jim Pantaleano) in 1:54, and a duo of 1:56.2 winners in Go West Go Fast (Marcus Miller) and Lyons Amusements (Anthony Napolitano). All five of these horses will now have a week to adjust to their new surroundings.
 
A 1:55 victory with My Friskie Boy at the $15,000 level allowed Kakaley to complete the speed double, with this horse joining Heartlandbanysbro (1:55.3, Morrill Jr.) and Sportskeeper (1:57.4, Simon Allard) as horses in the lower level to also be going to a new destination after their races. The two winners that do get to stay in familiar surroundings are Beach Fire K (1:55.4 for last year’s local horsemen crownwinners, driver George Napolitano Jr. and trainer Gilbert Garcia-Herrera), and Derecho in 1:57.4 for Kakaley and trainer Andrew Adamczyk. (Heartlandbanysbro gets an extra mention as the only winner on the card who was not 1-2 at the three-quarters: he was third, but in the pocket, and had enough to grind down pacesetter Bush Man N.)
 
In a $17,500 fast-class pace, the Western Ideal gelding Western Joe was again overpowering, fronting opposition that had earned $2.7 million and winning in 1:53 by 6¼ lengths for driver George Napolitano Jr., trainer Chris Choate, and owners Anthony Ruggeri and Richard Tosies.
 
There are a trio of $15,000 features on a 15-race card at Pocono on Sunday, starting at 5 p.m.: one is for trotters, and the two paces are split by sex. Program pages are available at https://www.phha.org/downsmsppps.html.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture