By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Tyler Buter, who has been the leading driver at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania during the afternoon and evening pari-mutuel racing, decided to extend his dominance to the mornings as well, as he won five qualifying races at the northeast Pennsylvania oval on Wednesday, guiding three of trainer Hunter Oakes’s four victorious charges and also doubling for trainer John Butenschoen.
 
Among the winners he drove for Butenschoen was R Melina, who last year was generally regarded as the second-best filly in her class behind Allegiant. The now four-year-old daughter of Chapter Seven, who numbered the Kentucky Filly Futurity and the New York Sire Stakes Championship among her successes, returned to the races with a dominating 1:56.3 victory for the ownership of M and L Delaware / Armitage Farm.
 
Trainer Oakes had a trio of talented three-year-old pacing males take victories, with two of them driven by Buter and sired by Huntsville: Excelsior final winner Invictus wired his field in 1:53.4 - :28, and multiple stakes winner Thirsty Thursday went to the lead nearing the far turn and came home in :27.3 to stop the clock at 1:55.2. Oakes teamed with Jason Bartlett as Dandy Ideal, a son of American Ideal who ended his baby campaign with four straight successes including the Matron final (in which Thirsty Thursday was second), flashed home in :26.2 from second-over in a 1:54.1 triumph.
 
The Pocono qualifiers can be seen at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Chapolier has now won every one of his nine 2025 starts at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, making a hard trip from the outside post eight look easy as he won in 1:54.3 over a track rated sloppy.
 
Tyler Buter, the track’s leading driver, saw the many of the usual propsective opportunists leaving quickly inside him and settled the Chapter Seven gelding in fourth as Macmorris Hanover, favored in last week’s Game Of Claims Championship but this week 21-1 from post seven, hustled to the top in :27.4, then got a breather to the :57.4 half, at which point Chapolier and Buter went into grinding mode. The pair kept drawing closer and closer to the leader while covering his own third quarter in :27.3, reaching the three-quarters just a neck behind as the timer flashed in 1:26.1, with In My Dreams pocketsitting and hoping for some luck.
 
But Buter just kept feeding his horse racetrack and Chapolier just kept gobbling it up, narrowing the margin to a head at the stretch call and then drawing off by 2¾ lengths seemingly effortlessly, with In My Dreams another length back in third. All of the first three finishers were claimed out of the feature, for a total outlay for the trio of $85,000.
 
Chapolier has now been claimed seven times (total sum $198,000) during his winning streak, showing amazing adaptability to constantly-changing surroundings (five different trainers in all). Three times he has been haltered and then raced by P T Stable and trainer Chris Oakes, and he earned them $24,000 in his three wins, plus $5000 extra as he elevated in price. (He didn’t make the Game Of Claims final though winning a leg because the first two prelims were base-priced at $20,000 and $25,000, so he was kept out of those legs by other connections and thus became final-ineligible.) Chapolier now goes back to owner Rocco Stebbins, from whom P T / Oakes took him in his previous start; the horse has earned $70,000 in purses between February 17 and May 6 at Pocono.
 
Buter also won the day’s co-feature, a $15,000 claiming handicap trot for horses just below the feature prices. Again he rallied his horse to overcome the uncovered route; here it was 10-1 shot Rose Run Elegant, a Rose Run Hooligan gelding who won in 1:54.4 before the rains came (“fast” track) for trainer Susan Marshall, co-owner with John Marshall. Buter, who had three victories in all on Tuesday, completed the four-day week at Pocono with fourteen trips to the winners circle.
 
On Tuesday, though, he had to take a back seat to three-time defending Pocono driving champion Matt Kakaley, who brought home six winners, including four in a row midcard over three different ratings in surface as the rain came in. The first five Kakaley wins were each for different trainers, while the sixth was his second collaboration with trainer Travis Alexander, the only conditioning doubler on the day.
 
Racing resumes at Pocono on Saturday at 1 p.m., and the card will mark the start of the local stakes season for the best Pennsylvania-sired horses, as five $30,000 Pennsylvania All-Stars divisions of the “glamour boys,” the three-year-old pacing colts, kick off the local 2025 program. There will also be a carryover of $3015 into the first race Superfecta. After Saturday, there will be Pocono racing at 6 p.m. on Sunday, and then on Monday and Tuesday at 1 p.m. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – At a time of year when many stakes three-year-olds are making their way back to the racetrack, it was the more seasoned performers who made the best showings during Tuesday morning qualifiers at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
 
Shining the brightest by far was the Chapter Seven four-year-old gelding Secret Agent Man, who flew around the racetrack in :27.4, :55.4, and 1:23 en route to a final time of 1:51.1, which must be close to the fastest trotting qualifier ever on a 5/8-mile track. The time is also a tick faster than the Philly divisional race record set last year by Benjamin Hanover.
 
Last year, Secret Agent Man had a “good then break” pattern: three seconds in the preliminaries of the top Kentucky program, then a miscue in the final; a Bluegrass winner, then a breaker in the Kentucky Futurity; second in his Breeders Crown elimination, but then again misbehaving in the final. His connections – driver Andy Miller, trainer Julie Miller, and the partnership of Andy Miller Stable Inc., Plouffe Racing, Patrick Hoopes, and Knutsson Trotting Inc. -- are obviously hoping for improved behavior from their horse, as he has shown he has the speed of a free-for-aller.
 
Three older performers tied for fastest pace honors at 1:53.1 – two easy winners, and one who got a good scare late. Stonecoldtreachery, who won in 1:50.2 here last year, won Tuesday, but keep an eye on Fusion (Always B Miki - Pure Country), who hadn’t raced since the Governor’s Cup, but zoomed home uncovered in :54.1-:27 to miss just a neck.
 
Of the other 1:53.1 winners, one was Sabonis, a son of Tellitlikeitis, a 16-race winner while taking a mark of 1:48.2 last year, including 13 straight victories and the Milstein in his only appearance outside Indiana. He came home in :27.2 debuting for Team Pelling.
 
The other was Oakwood Ardan IR, an import from across the Atlantic who is part of the white-hot Robert Cleary barn. He rose through the ranks last year and got all the way to third in the Canadian Pacing Derby and also a 1:48.2 victory, at The Meadowlands on Hambletonian Day. On Tuesday he sparkled during a :27.3 kicker.
 
The Philly qualifiers can be seen at www.phha.org (Secret Agent Man was race ten).

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Allegra Hanover went into the  $50,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championship for three-year-old pacing fillies with two wins and a nose loss in the preliminaries; the filly who beat her was Strutsville, who was the only horse who won all three of her prelims.
 
But Allegra Hanover drew the inside for Monday’s Weiss finale at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania and Strutsville had post seven – quite the reverse from their last meeting. The wagering public flocked to Allegra Hanover, and they were rewarded when the daughter of Papi Rob Hanover came away with a 1:52.2 victory over her archrival.
 
Sweet Odds (also a two-time prelim winner) and Strutsville were fastest away from the gate, with the latter claiming the point, but Allegra Hanover was already out and moving frontward for Dexter Dunn by the :27.4 quarter. Allegra Hanover got command, and nobody was eager to challenge her through midsplits of :56.2 and 1:24.1. Strutsville (to the outside) and Sweet Odds (to the inside) took their shot in the stretch, but Allegra Hanover won by a length over the potential pocket rocket, with Sweet Odds another 1½ lengths back.
 
Allegra Hanover posted only one victory at two, but that win gave her her career best clocking of 1:51.3. The filly is now four-for-five (plus the nose loss) this year, and that lifetime standard may not be standing much longer for the filly, trainer Gareth Dowse, and the ownership of Martin Valentic, T G Stable LLC, and Bill Boyce.
 
A $20,000 Weiss Consolation saw the Tall Dark Stranger filly Beckoning Yankee reduce her speed badge to 1:53.2 after taking control in front of the stands, then holding off the late-charging Milagro by a head. Nifty Norman trains the successful filly for Pinske Stables, Yankeeland Partners LLP, and Lawrence Means.
 
Red-hot driver Tyler Buter, the Pocono leader who was the pilot of Beckoning Yankee, added four winners on the Monday afternoon program; when added to the six-bagger he posted on Sunday night, Buter had ten visits to the winners circle within a 24-hour period.
 
Tuesday racing at 1 p.m. closes out the current four-card-a-week schedule; the $16,000 tenth race claiming handicap trotting feature marks the return of the remarkable Chapolier, who is eight-for-eight at the Pocono meet but will have to overcome the outside post eight if he is to continue his undefeated status in 2025 at the mountain oval. On Saturday, the Pennsylvania All-Stars will mark the start of the state-bred stakes season with five $30,000 divisions for the “glamour boys,” the three-year-old pacing males. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA -- The sophomore Greenshoe gelding Lionheart Hanover, a winner at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania on Tuesday, came right back on the first Sunday evening card at the year and notched a second photo victory in five days, winning the $14,000 featured trot.
 
Lionheart Hanover sat third early while going over the “sloppy surface,” then was moved outside coming off the first turn by driver Ridge Warren and made the lead in front of the stands. Beaujolais Breeze, 6-5 despite the outer post eight against the even-money winner, moved uncovered from sixth at the half and grinded his way into contention, but his gritty, steady bid came up shy by a head in a 1:57 mile.
 
Lionheart Hanover, whose eleven victories in 2024 included the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Fair Championship, is trained by Tony Schadel and is owned by him in partnership with wife Linda.
 
Pocono’s leading driver, Tyler Buter, widened his lead atop the standings by collecting six wins through the muck. He got the victories for six different trainers (each of whom may remember the successful teaming and in the future help him preserve his lead).
 
Monday’s 1 p.m. card will feature the last of the $50,000 Bobby Weiss Series Championships, this one or the three-year-old pacing fillies. Strutsville enters the final after having swept her three preliminaries, but from post seven she should get a battle from Allegra Hanover, who had two victories and a nose loss to Strutsville in her prelims and who will start from the rail in the finale. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha,org

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – Hemsworth N and Mad Max Hanover were the two horses assigned the outermost starting slots in the $15,000 fast-class handicap pace Sunday at Harrah’s Philadelphia, and they backed the Race Office’s judgment, as the Sweet Lou gelding Hemsworth N just held together over Mad Max Hanover by a head in 1:50.4 over “good” going.
 
Hemsworth N bolted away quickly for driver Dexter Dunn and had cleared to command by the midpoint on the first turn. Mad Max Hanover did not show that kind of early foot and did not have the luck to find a hole, so he had to ride outside as the $512,653-winning Hemsworth N set fractions of :26.2, :54.4, and 1:22.4.
 
Mad Max Hanover never saw a pylon while out in the air, and into the stretch Hemsworth N looked like he may have shaken off his pesky rival. But Mad Max Hanover, the favorite vs. the second-choice winner, showed the heart of a lion, gaining from midstretch and actually going past the leader just past the wire. But the day belonged to Hemsworth N, who is trained by Jared Bako for 1362313 Ontario LTD. (Ownerships of this type, if you’ve wondered, are legally known as “numbered companies,” have the numbers assigned by government’s Corporations Canada, must be registered in the business’s home province, and can do public business under another name.)
 
Talented developing male pacers had $14,000 and $13,500 contests on the Sunday Philly card. The higher-level of these events saw the Stay Hungry gelding Zeppole Hanover get hung to the three-eighths before making the lead, but then stayed strong to see of major danger Dublin Dasher in 1:51.1 for driver Dexter Dunn and trainer Andrew Harris, the latter co-owner with William Pollock and Bruce Areman. In the other up-and-comers event, the Matador Hall gelding Toreador GB sat a pocket trip, pulled out at headstretch, then held off the late move of Captain Marvel to win by a neck in 1:52.3 for trainer Robert Cleary and L P F Racing.
 
Toreador GB’s driver Andrew McCarthy had a triple on the card, as did owner Howard Taylor.
 
Racing resumes on Thursday at Philly, with a 12:25 first post; a well-matched field of talented fast-class trotters will be featured in a $15,000 handicap contest. Some of these veterans may be racing here on May 26 in the Maxie Lee Trot, one of three $100,000 Invitationals on Harrah’s traditional “Super Sunday” card on Memorial Day weekend. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

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. 

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – The Stay Hungry mare Racin Hungry made no fewer than three separate moves to the lead in the $11,000 distaff handicap pace feature on Kentucky Derby Saturday at Harrah’s Philadelphia, but she still had enough in reserve to win handily in 1:50.4, a new lifetime mark, while posting her third straight success.
 
Racin Hungry was sent to the lead by driver Mark Herschberger, yielded to Celia B Money but was on the retake by the :26.2 quarter. Racin Hungry quickly regained control but almost as quickly yielded it to Misty Coast, who had $10 less on her to win than the successful favorite, and Misty Coast continued the blistering pace to a half in :53.4.
 
Just as Celia B Money came out down the backstretch, Herschberger and Racin Hungry were making their third move, which took them to the top by a three-quarters in 1:21.2. That supersonic tempo could not hold up, but Racin Hungry could, as the winner of $281,075 was safe to the wire for trainer Joe Bongiorno and the ownership of Glenn Goller and Stephen Demeter.
 
Russell Foster led the drivers with four triumphs on the day, including both for the only doubling trainer, Eli Scott Jr., while Herschberger had three trips to the winners circle in all.
 
The local racing week ends on Sunday with a 12:40 card; a $15,000 fast-class handicap pace is the feature, an event that may generate a 1:50 mile if the forecast rain does not come to pass. Free Philly programs pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
CHESTER PA – “Captain” Corey Callahan drove the 8000th winner of his illustrious career on Friday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, guiding I See A Star to a 1:56.1 victory in a $13,500 trotting contest for developing horses.
 
Callahan settled the Bar Hopping mare, the choice of the Friday Philly crowd, in fourth early and sat there during fractions of :28.2 and :57.4, then moved out to follow the cover of second choice Herecomesdajudge, who was advancing towards the 1:26.1 three-quarters. The “Judge” put in bad steps on the far turn, leaving Callahan and I See A Star uncovered but with a clear path to the front, and the pair won safely for trainer/owner Brian Emerson, with Herecomesdajudge regaining his equilibrium and closing well to regain second.
 
Callahan, 47, had seasonal highs in 2013, when he won 618 races, and 2015, when the horses he guided earned $9.8 million. “The Captain,” currently fifth in wins on the local scene and tied for third at Harrington, has been consistent for the better part of two decades now, and his lifetime earnings of $116.3 million put him 25th in the sport’s all-time annals. For 2025, he is 25th in North America in sulky successes and 18th in earnings.
 
Corey’s milestone triumph came in the co-feature of the afternoon; the headliner was a $14,000 event for trotters one step above that group on the classladder. The $260,000 yearling Little Expensive showed signs of possibly developing into being a good investment for the money, as he left to command from the outermost post for driver Tyler Miller and got early pedestrian fractions of :29 and :58.4, with major rival Frank Leahy in the pocket. The two-holer likely got “bottomed out” as the victorious Muscle Hill gelding unleashed a :26.4 third quarter to the 1:25.3 third pole, the continued out to an open length victory in 1:54.2.
 
That clocking represents the third-slowest of Little Expensive’s nine career vixtories; the five-year-old broke 1:55 in every win, with two of them at 1:54.3. The Julie Miller trainee, owned by Andy Miller Stable Inc., Jean Goehlen, and VIP Internet Stable LLC, may be one to watch in coming weeks.


George Napolitano Jr. widened his lead atop the Philly driver standings by guiding four horses back to Victory Lane on Friday.
 
There will be a special LIVE Kentucky Derby Day card of Standardbred racing Saturday, with first post at noon; patrons can of course stay and watch and wager on the big runners race from Kentucky in early evening. Philly will then close out its racing week on Sunday at 12:40. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania rang down the curtain on its 2025 Game Of Claims Series events in classically dramatic style – there were even a Shakespearean Prologue and five “Acts” to the last contest. And in the final resolution of the $35,000 GOC Championship for high-level claiming trotters, it was 18-1 shot Chakra who got the big end of the money after In My Dreams crossed the wire first but was placed down for causing interference.
 
The prologue to this Final came when the driver assignments were announced, as Anthony Napolitano, third in the Pocono standings, was named on both Altus Hanover and Golden Compass, the only horses to win in all three preliminary legs. Who was “Anthony Nap”’s choice? Surprisingly to many (but noted by good handicappers), he opted for In My Dreams, who had two wins and a second in the series, but hadn’t gone as quickly as the streakers, and drew outside them to boot. (Afterwards, it appeared Anthony made a sharp, but unlucky choice.)
 
The first four “Acts” in this drama were the traditional four quarters of the mile. Golden Compass grabbed the early lead, with In My Dreams going into the pocket by the :26.3 Act I, er, quarter clocking. Macmorris Hanover, who wound up being favored from the rail, was on the move at the first pole, and after a brief skirmish eventually got the lead in the middle of Act II, with the half reached in :56.1.
 
Act III had the most heavily-concentrated part of the drama in the mile. In My Dreams launched uncovered early down the back in front of Altus Hanover, only to put in some funky steps and go out into the three path. That incident didn’t appear to bother the second-over too much, but soon another development did – in getting back to two-wide to challenge the leader, In My Dreams appeared to take racing room away by crowding Altus Hanover, as that one gapped towards the 1:25 three-quarters.
 
The last quarter (Act IV) found the troubled first-over horse putting away the pacesetting favorite fairly easily and going on to cross the wire 2¼ lengths to the good in 1:53.4. The Cantab Hall gelding Chamba, last at headstretch save for an early breaker, was skillfully steered through a small stretch hole by Simon Allard to photo out Altus Hanover and cross the wire second.
 
In the traditional “fifth act,” a final decision of the major dramatic action is usually featured, and indeed the judges launched an inquiry and found that In My Dreams had compromised the chances of Altus Hanover. The official 1-2-3 finish became Chamba, Altus Hanover, and In My Dreams, with Macmorris Hanover and Wabanaki deadheating for fourth, another half-length back. Chamba thus got the winner’s share for trainer Dean Eckley and owner Mark Akins in the memorable mile.
 
A $16,500 claiming handicap trot could be seen as a Consolation for those not making the Game Of Claims Final. And a familiar name turned up in the winners circle – the Chapter Seven gelding Chapolier, who won his only GOC start and thus missed the finale requirement of racing in all prelims. But Chapolier has done alright for himself, as these are his meet statistics from February 17 to April 29: eight starts, eight wins, $70,000 in earnings, wins for five different trainers (three of them twice, two of them once), and a sixth change of barns to take in after Tuesday’s co-feature.
 
Racing resumes at Pocono on Saturday, with live racing starting at 1 p.m. Developing younger horses will be featured on the live program; also, a certain Thoroughbred race from Kentucky will be available for watching and wagering later in the day. Bettors will already be into high gear by no fewer than three carryovers on the Saturday card: the last race High 5 wager will have gone 11 calendar days without being solved by Saturday, and the Pick 4 and Pick 3 will also have carryover pools.
 
Sunday cards at 6 p.m. will be added to the regular racing schedule starting this week, joining the established Saturday – Monday – Tuesday at 1 p.m. schedule. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.