Phil Your Boots wins a four-way photo

WILKES-BARRE PA – Phil Your Boots ($10.40) overcame a first-over journey to prove most photogenic in a four-way picture deciding the harness racing $18,000 pacing feature Saturday night at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono in 1:50.1.

 

A six-year-old gelded son of Shanghai Phil, Phil Your Boots actually left well but yielded the early lead, watching three horses go by him in the first 3/8: first Soto before the 25.4 quarter, then Bushwacker, then quarter-moving favorite Southwind Amazon, who put up middle splits of 54.2 and 1:21.4. Driver Anthony Napolitano then had the unenviable task of going uncovered against his brother George, driving Southwind Amazon, but he and "Phil" wore down the leader past midstretch, then held off a deep Pocono Pike rally by Soto to win by a head, with Southwind Amazon another head behind those two and Bushwacker fourth, only a half-length behind the winner.

 

Trained by Andrew Harris, Phil Your Boots was purchased by current owner Louis Frascella nearing the end of winter 2015, and when the horse took a three-month hiatus before a summertime campaign last year, his lifetime record would not rate the word "distinguished": seven wins in 65 starts, earnings of $48,877, and a mark of 1:55.1.

 

But Phil Your Boots is the kind of horse that keep owners dreaming about "the good horse just around the corner": returning in mid-2015 as an $8000 claimer, Phil Your Boots had worked his way up to the Open ranks and taken a mark of 1:49.1 at Dover before year's end, and in total during the last 14 months the pacer's scorecard shows 18 wins in 47 starts and earnings of $195,349.

 

The victory was the third on the night for driver Anthony Napolitano, of course well-known to Pocono fans, but another driver, now coming to Pocono on Saturdays and quickly making a big impression, is Pat Berry, who also had three wins on the card, two of them paying over $40: P L Haymaker at $48.80 for trainer Ron Burke (Pocono's leading trainer of longshot winners with three $50+ horses at the meet) and Rainbow Romance N at $41.40 for trainer Scott DiDomenico. Berry is tied for the lead in the driving longshot category 100 miles down the PA Turnpike at Harrah's Philly, with three of his four "bombers" constituting half the track's most recent output, and Pat and DiDomenico combined at Philly on May 8 with Twin B Famous, with that $136.20 win mutuel the second-highest of the year at the Harrah's oval.

 

 

Pocono Director of Racing Rick Kane reminds all horsemen that on August 20, $2.5M Super Stakes Saturday at Pocono, there are three $50,000 Invitational races also scheduled – for open pacers, open trotters, and filly and mare pacers – and anyone interested in participating in these contests should call him as soon as possible at 570 831 2126.