WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Pennsylvania-sired two-year-old trotting fillies come to The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono for the track's final two cards of the week, with Sire Stakes horses on Monday and Stallion Series contests on Tuesday. These races are the fourth and final preliminary legs for the babies, their last chance to earn points to work into their respective Championship races.
No Sire Stakes filly was able to win all three of her prelim races to date, although Sonnet Grace and Magical Beliefs came close with two wins and a second. Both won in the first leg; Sonnet Grace beat Magical Beliefs in the second prelim; then in the third prelim, Magical Beliefs returned to winning ways while Sonnet Grace finished a head behind Antonia, her second Sires win after skipping the first leg.
All three will race in the three Sires divisions at Pocono on Monday: Sonnet Grace in the eighth, Magical Beliefs and Antonia in the eleventh. They will be joined by a powerful pair of "new shooters" in the Sire Stakes competition: The Ice Dutchess and Beautiful Sin, who were a neck apart as the 1-2 finishers in the Doherty Memorial on Hambletonian Day. These two are unlikely to make the finals even if they win, but they could earn themselves a spot in their Consolation race.
Sonnet Grace is favored in her eighth race division, and The Ice Dutchess in the tenth. The most contentious division, the eleventh, will find Beautiful Sin opening as the choices against the two double winners in her section.
In Tuesday's Stallion Series racing, there are seven divisions of action, which means the Championship picture is very far from solidified, although among the definite starters if she enters is Southwind Storm. The filly has "stormed" to three straight wins in her StS preliminary action, and would appear to have a good chance to go into her Championship race undefeated. She goes in the eighth race division.
Navarone Hanover, a two-time winner in her only two Stallion Series starts, faces the gate a race earlier. The only other double prelim winner, Fast Reaction is not entered, but no fewer than eight single prelim winners are scattered throughout the card, looking to do well and make their Championship contest.
From the PHHA/Pocono Downs