WILKES-BARRE PA – JL Cruze, 2015's champion Older Male Trotter in North America, got his 2016 harness racing campaign again headed in the right direction with a 1:53 victory in the $25,000 winners-over feature Sunday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
John Campbell had his usual seat behind the altered five-year-old son of Crazed, and he guided him to the lead past the 27.2 opening quarter, then backed off the half to 57.1. From there, "JL" cruzed home in 55.4, winning by two lengths over the out-at-every-call Crazshana, completing the Crazed-sired Exacta, with Il Sogno Dream another half-length back in third after going first-over.
This season JL Cruze opened his campaign with three straight victories, but he had gone "only" 1 for 5 since then before this race – if you count a second to Rose Run Parker, still 2016's fastest North American trotter (1:50.4), and a fourth in the Cutler and a fifth in the Lee, in the "only" category. But perhaps his win at Pocono will mark a turnaround back towards his championship form for the Eric Ell-trained trotter, owned by Wm. Kenneth Wood, William Dittmar Jr., and Stephen Iaquinta, and now the winner of $101,430 this year and $761,483 lifetime.
If you like two-year-old trotting stakes fillies, Pocono is the place to be for you the next two nights – eight divisions of Pennsylvania Stallion Series action top the bill on Monday, while the next night will feature five divisions of Pennsylvania Sire Stakes racing.
PHHA / Pocono