WILKES-BARRE, PA – Homicide Hunter, already #1 in the pointstandings in the Great Northeast Open Series (GNOS) division for fast-class trotters, marked himself as the horse to beat in his $100,000 Championship event next Sunday with an authoritative 1:51.4 triumph in the $30,000 final GNOS prelim round at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
The altered son of Cantab Hall has achieved much success racing on the lead, but on Sunday he looked strong coming off the pace, a trait which may help him at the GNOS Championship distance of 1¼ miles.
Driver George Napolitano Jr., posting his 17th victory of a memorable Friday-Saturday-Sunday driving weekend, spotted the winner of $1,305,427 early, then put him in second-over position.
When "George Nap" tipped him three-wide late on the far turn, the on-the-bit trotter surged forward, with the main stretch question being "How much is he going to win by?", the answer to which was 2½ lengths over 95-1 shot Tight Lines, who also had good late kick. But nobody was in the league tonight of Homicide Hunter, who is trained by Chris Oakes for Crawford Farms Racing.
The top ten open trotters in the GNOS preliminaries were: 1. Homicide Hunter, 2. Smalltownthrowdown, 3. Lagerfeld, 4. the mare Broadway Donna, 5. Melady's Monet, 6. Marion Marauder, 7. Sutton, 8. Muscle Diamond, 9. (tie) Guardian Angel AS and Will Take Charge. Since some of the top ten have qualified for the Maple Leaf Trot final next week in Canada, the connections of those "on the bubble" (such as Tight Lines, 11th in the standings) will likely enter and then await with hope the results of the draw for Saturday's card, which takes place Monday (the 27th).
The Great Northeast Open Series Championships, with open pacers and mare pacers in the other two GNOS categories, going for $100,000 and all at 1¼ miles, will be joined by the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships for three-year-olds, along with their consolations, on a $1.5M card that must not be missed next Sunday at The Downs.
There were $21,500 sub-features held for trotters and for mare pacers on Sunday. In the trot, the Majestic Son mare Charmed Life did an unusual thing at Pocono – she came from third-over to win, swinging four-wide into the stretch and just catching pacesetting Dayson by a neck in 1:53.4.
Simon Allard got a big late effort out of the winner from the winner of $1,408,882 to achieve the triumph for trainer/brother Rene Allard and the partnership of Allard Racing Inc., Yves Sarrazin, and VIP Internet Stable LLC.
In the mares pace, the Mach Three mare Windsun Glory looked up and down the starting gate, did not see Shartin N et al., much to her relief, and then posted her third win in her last five starts, this one in 1:51.1.
The classdropping winner of $306,898 briefly settled third before the ¼, then was out and moving off the first turn for driver Matt Kakaley to the lead just past the 3/8 and went on strongly, with Penpal firing strongly late but coming up 1½ lengths shy. Ron Burke conditions the winner for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, J&T Silva Stables LLC, and Lawrence Karr.
From the PHHA/Pocono Downs