RESOLVE TO WIN LIVES UP TO HIS NAME AGAIN AT POCONO

Photo: Curtis Salonick

By: Jerry Connors, Jr. 
WILKES-BARRE PA – Right now there are few Standardbred horses as well-named as Resolve To Win, who has taken four of his last five starts, including the last two featured trots at Pocono after emerging victorious in Tuesday’s $27,500 fast-class handicap feature in 1:52.3.
 
An Åke Svanstedt trainee, the 2025 Hambletonian champion Nordic Catcher S, was the pre-race favorite, but the bad luck that has limited that horse to only three starts since that Hambletonian win 415 days ago again plagued him as he was a sick scratch. But the newly-elected Hall of Famer Svanstedt still sent out the favorite in Hustle Rain S, beaten only three-quarters of a length by world champion Dame Good Time in his only U.S. start. Hustle Rain S went off at 3-5, Resolve To Win at even money (he has been favored only once since hitting his top stride).
 
Resolve To Win, a Resolve gelding trained by Enrico Robinson for Pollack Racing LLC, needed most of a :27 first quarter to take command from Hustle Rain S, but driver George Napolitano Jr. was then able to give the leader a very helpful slowdown to reach the half in :56.2. The three-quarters came and went in 1:24.4, and still Resolve To Win had no challenge for the lead; Hustle Rain S gave the winner his best shot in the lane, but could only get to within three parts of a length in a :27.4 kicker.
 
There were two $16,000 co-featured events, one on each gait. George Napolitano Jr. also guided the winner of the trotting subfeature, the Walner gelding Abruzzo, who set all the pace and came home in :56.1 to claim an easy 1:53 victory, his third in his last four starts, for trainer Marc Mosher and owner P  T Stable. Abruzzo fit the class by using the $30,000 claiming AE option, but he who lives by the tag can be done in by the tag as well; Abruzzo was claimed Tuesday, but not before earning his connections $16,000 in purse money since they themselves haltered him on August 31.
 
In the cofeatured pace, limited to mares, trainer Doug Dilloian sent out the 1-2 finishers, with  the JK Endofanera mare JK Pearl Stone able to get a neck up on the money over favored pacesetter Stayingwiththewind in a 1:52.3 - :56- :27.3 mile that saw the first five within a length of each other at the wire. JK Pearl Stone raced second-over as the chalk and first-over Blue Chip Lou N dueled on the far turn; when the Kiwi bore wide nearing headstretch, “JK”’s driver Anthony Napolitano kept his cool in not trying to go wider around the drifter, but held his two-wide position, waited a couple of seconds to ascertain a clear lane would be available to him, then knifed through to get the nod in the blanket finish.
 
Matt Kakaley and Anthony Napolitano both drove three winners on the day; Tyler Buter, Ridge Warren, and George Napolitano Jr. each had two (the last-named guiding the winners of the only doubling trainer, Marc Mosher).
 
Tuesday’s 1 p.m. Pocono performance will be highlighted by five fields of developing two-year-olds, each racing for $16,000. Saturday (also 1 p.m. post) will mark the 2026 start of the John Simpson Sr. stakes series, with the races in each of the eight divisions named after a horse with whom he was associated in his Hall of Fame career: Saturday’s race is called the Albatross, for three-year-old male pacers, and it will go in three $30,000 divisions. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.