TOP "GLAMOUR DIVISION" COLTS IN PA ALL-STARS ACTION
PHHA / Pocono
CURTIS SALONICK PHOTO
WILKES-BARRE PA – The Pennsylvania-sired “glamour division,” the three-year-old pacing males, were featured in their first of two consecutive Sunday stops at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, contesting three $30,000 divisions of their Pennsylvania All-Stars event.
The fastest divisional winner, the Sweet Lou gelding Idiosyncratic, was also the only non-favorite to be victorious, taking a new mark of 1:50.3 as the 5-2 second choice. Simon Allard directed Idiosyncratic three-wide down the backstretch to loop a parked-the-mile horse, then kept coming in the stretch to catch Mamba, who had gone fractions of :26.4, :54.1, and 1:22.1 under pressure, by three-quarters a length, with favored Stay Grounded shuffled back then closing for third. Ron Burke trains the winner, a winner of half his twelve seasonal starts who lowered his mark from The Meadows last week by a tick, for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
Favored sons of Captaintreacherous took the other two cuts, one easily, one not so easily. The Brett Pelling-trained Command gradually worked up from the outside post eight by Todd McCarthy, wearing the colors of owners Diamond Creek Racing, and took command, putting up splits of :27.2, :56, and 1:23.3. Hunters Hero swung wide from second-over and closed powerfully on the far outside at 30-1, but he was a nose shy in the 1:51.1 mile, with pocketsitter Panettone Hanover just another nose shy of taking it all.
Perhaps the most impressive winner to the eye won in the slowest clocking of the three, 1:51.4. Ken Hanover, coming off a 1:49.4 Meadows Sire Stakes win, was the overwhelming choice and was driven by confidence by David Miller (career win #13,998), laying off early fractions of :27.2 and :57.1 before launching a steady uncovered bid well before the 1:24.3 three-quarters. Ken Hanover ate up the ground until taking over late on the turn, then held off second-over Lyons Surfing by 2¼ lengths while pacing his own last half in :53.4. Trainer Polie Mallar and co-owners Patrick Leavitt, William Jordan, and Dennis Osterholt look to have themselves a national-caliber colt here.
