Photo: Curtis Salonick
By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Napolitano brothers, Anthony and George, each won four races during a 12-race Kentucky Derby Day Saturday card at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, and they took the lion’s share of the features as well.
George was in the sulky behind the Bettor’s Delight gelding Mac’s Delight as he equaled Charlie May for the distinction of fastest mile of the year here with a 1:49.1 victory in a $16,500 fast-class handicap pacing feature. Virgo blasted off the rail and hung up withering numbers of :27.3, :55.3, and 1:21.2 (yes, folks, that was a :25.4 third quarter); behind him, Mac’s Delight pulled out from third to go after the leader late in the backstretch, got a brief inside respite, then completed catching the speedy pacesetter by a neck in the last few yards for Team Cancelliere – trainer Tom and owner John.
“George Nap” came right back in the next race to post a 1:50 mile with Rush In, a son of Heston Blue Chip who had pressure most of the way but went on successfully for trainer Linda Toscano and the partnership of Let It Ride Stables Inc., Odds On Racing, South Mountain Stables and Island Sun Stable.
George also guided the horse who won the richest race of the day, a $17,000 trot for developing horses, with Ferretti, a Creatine gelding who would not surrender the front end in a 1:53.2 victory for trainer-owner Anette Lorentzon.
Anthony’s biggest moment in the spotlight came in the $16,500 handicap pace for the track’s top claimers, rallying the Art Major gelding Belmont Major N from the pocket to win in 1:50.2 by a head over Lunar (by George). The winner of $421,026 comes from the barn of Lou Pena and is owned by Joe’s Auto.
The only feature to elude the brothers was the $16,000 co-featured trot for rising talent. That race was taken by Ridge Warren and the Pitagora Bi mare Dorotea Trio IT, who has now won four of her last five starts and took a new mark of 1:54, but she had to work hard to keep off Attis Rock by a head for trainer Travis Alexander and M Spacc Stables, Tar Heel Racing, Alexander Racing Stable LLC, and Stephen Moss.
Driver Warren’s victory here, one of three on the card for him, did fit in well with a recurrent motif of the day: the Napolitanos won eight races and wear red and white, and Warren won three more and wears red and white, so eleven of the day’s twelve contests were won by that color combination – the only other driver to break through the red-white barrier was the track’s leading driver in 2025, Tyler Buter. Drivers wearing red and white were 1-2 five times (George led Anthony 2-1 in that family feud), and one Trifecta was a 1-2-3 sweep for the day’s “featured colors.”
Sunday night racing at 6 p.m. joins the Pocono schedule for the next card at Pocono, joining the present Saturday / Monday / Tuesday schedule at 1 p.m. to form the weekly pattern for the vast majority of the summer. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Napolitano brothers, Anthony and George, each won four races during a 12-race Kentucky Derby Day Saturday card at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, and they took the lion’s share of the features as well.
George was in the sulky behind the Bettor’s Delight gelding Mac’s Delight as he equaled Charlie May for the distinction of fastest mile of the year here with a 1:49.1 victory in a $16,500 fast-class handicap pacing feature. Virgo blasted off the rail and hung up withering numbers of :27.3, :55.3, and 1:21.2 (yes, folks, that was a :25.4 third quarter); behind him, Mac’s Delight pulled out from third to go after the leader late in the backstretch, got a brief inside respite, then completed catching the speedy pacesetter by a neck in the last few yards for Team Cancelliere – trainer Tom and owner John.
“George Nap” came right back in the next race to post a 1:50 mile with Rush In, a son of Heston Blue Chip who had pressure most of the way but went on successfully for trainer Linda Toscano and the partnership of Let It Ride Stables Inc., Odds On Racing, South Mountain Stables and Island Sun Stable.
George also guided the horse who won the richest race of the day, a $17,000 trot for developing horses, with Ferretti, a Creatine gelding who would not surrender the front end in a 1:53.2 victory for trainer-owner Anette Lorentzon.
Anthony’s biggest moment in the spotlight came in the $16,500 handicap pace for the track’s top claimers, rallying the Art Major gelding Belmont Major N from the pocket to win in 1:50.2 by a head over Lunar (by George). The winner of $421,026 comes from the barn of Lou Pena and is owned by Joe’s Auto.
The only feature to elude the brothers was the $16,000 co-featured trot for rising talent. That race was taken by Ridge Warren and the Pitagora Bi mare Dorotea Trio IT, who has now won four of her last five starts and took a new mark of 1:54, but she had to work hard to keep off Attis Rock by a head for trainer Travis Alexander and M Spacc Stables, Tar Heel Racing, Alexander Racing Stable LLC, and Stephen Moss.
Driver Warren’s victory here, one of three on the card for him, did fit in well with a recurrent motif of the day: the Napolitanos won eight races and wear red and white, and Warren won three more and wears red and white, so eleven of the day’s twelve contests were won by that color combination – the only other driver to break through the red-white barrier was the track’s leading driver in 2025, Tyler Buter. Drivers wearing red and white were 1-2 five times (George led Anthony 2-1 in that family feud), and one Trifecta was a 1-2-3 sweep for the day’s “featured colors.”
Sunday night racing at 6 p.m. joins the Pocono schedule for the next card at Pocono, joining the present Saturday / Monday / Tuesday schedule at 1 p.m. to form the weekly pattern for the vast majority of the summer. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
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