Art Of Revenge battles to 1:50.1 victory

WILKES-BARRE PA – A pair of claiming paces for the highest-tagged horses racing at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania was held during the Sunday twilight harness racing card.

The $15,500 claiming handicap pace for horses carrying prices between $30,000 and $40,000 went to the Art Official gelding Art Of Revenge, who certainly did not have the easiest trip but still held on for the win in 1:50.1. The winner, second choice of the Pocono punters, was three- then two-wide past the quarter to get the lead, then had to battle with raw favorite Up The Creek, coming off a win in this class. Art Of Revenge stayed steady in the lane, and Statesidelckdwn GB proved the biggest threat, with his late rush carrying him to second, a head behind the winner and a length ahead of the favorite, who finished third.

ART OF REVENGE REPLAY

Art Of Revenge was yet another winner for the track’s leading driver and trainer, Tyler Buter and Ron Burke, and he has been successful in three of his last four starts for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.

For horses tagged at $20,000, there was a $14,000 event, which was taken in wire-to-wire fashion by the Lazarus N gelding Whiskey Breath in 1:52.2. Big Ego chased the winner from the pocket but came up a half length shy to the Matt Kakaley-driven winner, trained by Darren Taneyhill for P T Stable.

The Stay Hungry – Twin B Dream Girl gelding Lykens Valley made a memorable career debut, closing well after coming very wide off the final turn and just nipping heavy favorite Wardensville, who used the Pocono Pike but was a nose less photogenic in the 1:57.2 mile. Driven and trained by David Wiest and co-owned by him with Justin Wiest, Lykens Valley became only the fourth horse to pay in triple digits to win at Pocono this year, returning $102.60 to his scattered backers.

Driver Matt Kakaley and trainer Joe Pavia Jr. swept the Late Double together; the two wins gave Kakaley four wins on the night to lead all horsemen. Pavia tied with trainer Åke Svanstedt for conditioning honors with a pair of successes; Tyler Buter also had two wins.

Monday’s 1 p.m. card at Pocono will be highlighted by the $20,000 Game Of Claims Pacing Series Championship; no one of the $20,000 base-tagged horses won in all three preliminaries, and the three horses who won two prelims were stuck with posts six / seven / eight for their finale. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

From the PHHA / Pocono Downs