By: Curtis Salonick
By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
WILKES-BARRE PA – After racing at Monticello, Yonkers, and Saratoga already in 2026, Turn The Page N was on the road again on Monday at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, taking the big end of the purse in the $27,500 fast-class handicap pace for mares.
Ron Cushing, who co-owns the Heidi Cushing trainee with Kevin Sywyk, was content to sit with his mare in the pocket behind pacesetter My Red Sea through mild fractions of :27, :56, and 1:24.2 on a chilly day. He then ducked the daughter of Vincent to the Pocono Pike and outpaced her opposition home in 1:53.2. Dandy’s Mercy skimmed the far inside of the course to take second, a length back of the 40% career winner (24 victories in 60 starts).
The clocking was a little faster, 1:52.2, in the $17,500 pacing co-feature for developing distaffs, with the winner another New Zealand import who loves to get home first, the Johny Rock mare Raspalia N, now victorious seven times in but sixteen lifetime trips behind the gate.
Driver Lauren Tritton was determined to make the lead despite the outside post seven, and she and her charge had to cover a good bit of extra real estate, well beyond a :27 quarter, before hitting the top, whereupon she continued on to middle fractions of :55.3 and 1:22.3. Raspalia N had enough in reverse to keep the pocketsitting Loot, the longest shot in the race, 1¾ lengths behind her to the wire, keeping her Stateside record perfect after three starts for trainer Agostino Abbatiello and owner Durazzano Stable LLC.
The Monday card again showed parity in the sulkysitter ranks, with the same pattern as Saturday: two wins were recorded by Simon Allard, Braxten Boyd, Mark Herschberger, and Anthony Napolitano (the only repeat doubler), and one win by six other drivers. On the Monday card, fourteen different trainers were responsible for the winners of the fourteen races.
If the weather does not force a change in plans, Pocono will close out its racing week on Tuesday at 1 p.m., with a pair of $15,500 contests for up-and-coming trotters in the spotlight. Saturday has the next scheduled card, and that 1 p.m. program will feature the richest race of the young Pocono season, the $35,000 Championship of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series for horses base-priced at $30,000, with the field of eight showing ten victories and 21 1-2-3 finishes in their cumulative 24 starts in the GOC preliminaries.
Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
WILKES-BARRE PA – After racing at Monticello, Yonkers, and Saratoga already in 2026, Turn The Page N was on the road again on Monday at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, taking the big end of the purse in the $27,500 fast-class handicap pace for mares.
Ron Cushing, who co-owns the Heidi Cushing trainee with Kevin Sywyk, was content to sit with his mare in the pocket behind pacesetter My Red Sea through mild fractions of :27, :56, and 1:24.2 on a chilly day. He then ducked the daughter of Vincent to the Pocono Pike and outpaced her opposition home in 1:53.2. Dandy’s Mercy skimmed the far inside of the course to take second, a length back of the 40% career winner (24 victories in 60 starts).
The clocking was a little faster, 1:52.2, in the $17,500 pacing co-feature for developing distaffs, with the winner another New Zealand import who loves to get home first, the Johny Rock mare Raspalia N, now victorious seven times in but sixteen lifetime trips behind the gate.
Driver Lauren Tritton was determined to make the lead despite the outside post seven, and she and her charge had to cover a good bit of extra real estate, well beyond a :27 quarter, before hitting the top, whereupon she continued on to middle fractions of :55.3 and 1:22.3. Raspalia N had enough in reverse to keep the pocketsitting Loot, the longest shot in the race, 1¾ lengths behind her to the wire, keeping her Stateside record perfect after three starts for trainer Agostino Abbatiello and owner Durazzano Stable LLC.
The Monday card again showed parity in the sulkysitter ranks, with the same pattern as Saturday: two wins were recorded by Simon Allard, Braxten Boyd, Mark Herschberger, and Anthony Napolitano (the only repeat doubler), and one win by six other drivers. On the Monday card, fourteen different trainers were responsible for the winners of the fourteen races.
If the weather does not force a change in plans, Pocono will close out its racing week on Tuesday at 1 p.m., with a pair of $15,500 contests for up-and-coming trotters in the spotlight. Saturday has the next scheduled card, and that 1 p.m. program will feature the richest race of the young Pocono season, the $35,000 Championship of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series for horses base-priced at $30,000, with the field of eight showing ten victories and 21 1-2-3 finishes in their cumulative 24 starts in the GOC preliminaries.
Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
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