WILKES-BARRE PA – The four-year-old Muscle Hill gelding Spy Booth started his four-year-old campaign with only one lifetime victory, but on Tuesday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono he ran his 2022 record to three-for-three with a 1:56 victory in the $15,000 featured trot. Spy Booth went to the lead right at the start and was in firm control throughout for driver George Napolitano Jr., trainer Lorenzo De Simone, and owner Joseph Riad.
Spy Booth achieved a bit of notoriety when he broke his maiden in the $325,000 Zweig Memorial at Vernon last year – add 50% of that purse to the $225,000 he earned finishing second in the Hambletonian Final, and the pair of races account for $387,500 of his $455,882 career bankroll. Away from the stakes toughies, he’s doing quite nicely and may handle future class stepups.
Racing returns to the Downs on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Sunday’s 5 p.m. card is topped by three $30,000 divisions of Pennsylvania All-Stars action for the Hambletonian group, the three-year-old trotting males. Program pages will be available at https://www.phha.org/downsmsppps.html.