Photo: Curtis Salonick
By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
WILKES-BARRE PA – There were two constants as three-year-old trotting fillies raced for over $200,000 in two divisions of Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and five divisions of the Pennsylvania Stallion Series at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania during a Sunday twilight card. One constant was that there would be no first round winner repeating in this second preliminary leg; the other was that every winner would set a lifetime mark.
Fastest of all the fillies was Frattina Diablo S, a daughter of the hot sire Captain Corey, who proved best in a four-horse PaSS grouping at the wire, stopping the timer in 1:52.1. The Scott Zeron-driven diamondgaiter, second by a nose in her first prelim, was close-up during a :27.4 opener then brushed to the lead past first-round winner Maya Patel Hanover before a :56.2 half. Nuance started an uncovered bid before a 1:24.3 three-quarters, and a the field came through the stretch, there were two inside the favored leader, Maya Patel Hanover and Little Road to that’s one left, and the raw Nuance to the outside.
Frattina Diablo S showed grit while trotting her last quarter in :27.3, warding off the 20-1 shot Little Road in the deep Pocono Pike by a neck, with Maya Patel Hanover another neck back and just getting the show nod in a picture with Nuance. Frattina Diablo S is trained by Tony Alagna for Steve Stewart and Dreamlover AB.
The other section saw the Bar Hopping filly Lainey W step her last fraction in :27.1 while using the Pocono Pike to win a head decision over favored Carve in 1:52.3. Carve was on the move at the :28.3 quarter and made the lead, carving out midsplits of :57.3 and 1:25.1 (a :27.3 third quarter). Normally a :55 last half would do a filly very well in this type of race, but Lainey W had just a bit more after the good journey to prove more photogenic.
Lainey W, who had a second in a PA All-Stars race in her only other start of 2026, was driven by Yannick Gingras for trainer Marcus Melander and the partnership of Brittany Farms LLC and Marvin And Lynn Katz.
Scott Zeron also had the fastest winner in the Stallion Series racing, I Take The Care, another daughter of Captain Corey, and when you check her 1:52.2 win time against the Sires clockings, you’ll see that she may well fit in with this division’s best. Third in her first StS contest, I Take The Cake made two speed moves and had a clear lead at headstretch, but she won by only a half length as Green Maztake almost repaired a brief backstretch miscue with a huge stretch kick. The winner is trained by Blake MacIntosh for himself and Hutt Racing Stable.
The son-in-law/father-in-law team of driver Mike Wilder and trainer Dan Altmeyer accounted for two Stallion Series cuts. The Greenshoe miss Skyline Salty Gal closed to be along by a neck over Intisaar Mil in 1:54.1 for owners Altmeyer Wilder Racing, Anthony Capone Jr., Mark Capone, and David Wills; Altmeyer/Wilder Racing and Wells also own, along with Dr. Courtney Evans and Beverly Ross, Avianna Hanover, yet another Captain Corey offspring, who came from seventh at the stretch call to get up a neck up over Lady Tessie Marie in 1:55.1.
Trainer-driver Trond Smedshammer, who had come so far to just miss with Green Maztake earlier, went to the front with Islandgirl Hanover and won handily in 1:53.2 for longtime stable patron Purple Haze Stables LLC, in the process giving Captain Corey his third Stallion Series credit and fourth stakes credit overall on the evening. The other StS section had the Cantab Hall filly Royally Bred win after a pocket trip in 1:55.3, pulling a 16-1 upset for driver Braxten Boyd and trainer Ray Schnittker, the latter co-owner with Steven Arnold.
Scott Zeron had a driving triple, including one of the two winners that Tony Alagna sent out, as mentioned. Team Wilder/Altmeyer, also as mentioned, also had two victories.
Monday’s 1 p.m. card at Pocono features a $20,000 fast-class trot, along with the final preliminary leg of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series, with three $13,000 divisions programmed for horses base-tagged at $20,000 who are hoping to qualify for the $20,000 series Championship seven days afterwards. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
WILKES-BARRE PA – There were two constants as three-year-old trotting fillies raced for over $200,000 in two divisions of Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and five divisions of the Pennsylvania Stallion Series at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania during a Sunday twilight card. One constant was that there would be no first round winner repeating in this second preliminary leg; the other was that every winner would set a lifetime mark.
Fastest of all the fillies was Frattina Diablo S, a daughter of the hot sire Captain Corey, who proved best in a four-horse PaSS grouping at the wire, stopping the timer in 1:52.1. The Scott Zeron-driven diamondgaiter, second by a nose in her first prelim, was close-up during a :27.4 opener then brushed to the lead past first-round winner Maya Patel Hanover before a :56.2 half. Nuance started an uncovered bid before a 1:24.3 three-quarters, and a the field came through the stretch, there were two inside the favored leader, Maya Patel Hanover and Little Road to that’s one left, and the raw Nuance to the outside.
Frattina Diablo S showed grit while trotting her last quarter in :27.3, warding off the 20-1 shot Little Road in the deep Pocono Pike by a neck, with Maya Patel Hanover another neck back and just getting the show nod in a picture with Nuance. Frattina Diablo S is trained by Tony Alagna for Steve Stewart and Dreamlover AB.
The other section saw the Bar Hopping filly Lainey W step her last fraction in :27.1 while using the Pocono Pike to win a head decision over favored Carve in 1:52.3. Carve was on the move at the :28.3 quarter and made the lead, carving out midsplits of :57.3 and 1:25.1 (a :27.3 third quarter). Normally a :55 last half would do a filly very well in this type of race, but Lainey W had just a bit more after the good journey to prove more photogenic.
Lainey W, who had a second in a PA All-Stars race in her only other start of 2026, was driven by Yannick Gingras for trainer Marcus Melander and the partnership of Brittany Farms LLC and Marvin And Lynn Katz.
Scott Zeron also had the fastest winner in the Stallion Series racing, I Take The Care, another daughter of Captain Corey, and when you check her 1:52.2 win time against the Sires clockings, you’ll see that she may well fit in with this division’s best. Third in her first StS contest, I Take The Cake made two speed moves and had a clear lead at headstretch, but she won by only a half length as Green Maztake almost repaired a brief backstretch miscue with a huge stretch kick. The winner is trained by Blake MacIntosh for himself and Hutt Racing Stable.
The son-in-law/father-in-law team of driver Mike Wilder and trainer Dan Altmeyer accounted for two Stallion Series cuts. The Greenshoe miss Skyline Salty Gal closed to be along by a neck over Intisaar Mil in 1:54.1 for owners Altmeyer Wilder Racing, Anthony Capone Jr., Mark Capone, and David Wills; Altmeyer/Wilder Racing and Wells also own, along with Dr. Courtney Evans and Beverly Ross, Avianna Hanover, yet another Captain Corey offspring, who came from seventh at the stretch call to get up a neck up over Lady Tessie Marie in 1:55.1.
Trainer-driver Trond Smedshammer, who had come so far to just miss with Green Maztake earlier, went to the front with Islandgirl Hanover and won handily in 1:53.2 for longtime stable patron Purple Haze Stables LLC, in the process giving Captain Corey his third Stallion Series credit and fourth stakes credit overall on the evening. The other StS section had the Cantab Hall filly Royally Bred win after a pocket trip in 1:55.3, pulling a 16-1 upset for driver Braxten Boyd and trainer Ray Schnittker, the latter co-owner with Steven Arnold.
Scott Zeron had a driving triple, including one of the two winners that Tony Alagna sent out, as mentioned. Team Wilder/Altmeyer, also as mentioned, also had two victories.
Monday’s 1 p.m. card at Pocono features a $20,000 fast-class trot, along with the final preliminary leg of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series, with three $13,000 divisions programmed for horses base-tagged at $20,000 who are hoping to qualify for the $20,000 series Championship seven days afterwards. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
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