Two Pocono "longshot specialists" were the harness racing winning team behind $58.80 upsetter Dunn Dealin in the sixth race – Jim Taggart Jr., whose third $50+ winner tied him for the meet lead with Anthony Napolitano, and trainer Judy Welty, the first conditioner to have a pair of bombers to her credit in 2018. That makes four $50+ winners in the last three cards at Pocono – after the win price totals of the entire card on Sun Stakes Saturday elimination night was $60.40!
WILKES-BARRE PA – The above was written after the tenth race feature on Tuesday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Little did we know that the Jim Taggart Jr. Show was just beginning.
Taggart, a 48-year-old who has won over 4500 races, added a note of the dramatic in the twelfth race, as his nearly 8-1 shot Angel's Pride could not be separated from Skinny Dipper (Eric Carlson) for the win at the end of a 1:52.1 mile.
And then in the finale, Taggart, among the Top Ten drivers at both The Downs and Monticello, rallied the Somebeachsomewhere gelding Tempster Hanover from second-over, going by pacesetting favorite Allstar Partner, who earlier in the meet had been claimed for $39,000 to tie the highest claim price ever paid at Pocono.
Tempster Hanover, himself a $20,000 claim in May, overpowered his field by 1¾ lengths in 1:52 for Taggart and trainer Joe Pavia Jr. – and, overlooked after a scratch and so-so recent form, bounced back and paid $203.40 to win!
This was the second-highest price of the season, after a $250.80 return by Highland Dynamite (Simon Allard) in a PA All-Stars event, and it gave Taggart a meet-leading fourth victory with a $50+ longshot.
And it's not like Tempster Hanover has never been an upsetter, and a late-night one to boot – he paid $57.40 on May 8 in the next-to-last race of the card, and now $203.40 in the night's getaway event to be the only $50+ repeat winner at the meet!
From the PHHA/Pocono Downs