WILKES-BARRE PA – The blazing-hot brother team of harness racing driver Simon Allard and trainer Rene opened the Saturday night harness racing card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono with three victories and two seconds in the first five races, including taking recent stable addition Avenue Hanover, moving him up a notch, and still winning the co-featured $18,000 claiming handicap pace.

 

The victorious son of Cam's Card Shark sat the pocket behind favored Muscle Beachboy, going for his eighth straight win (and ironically, claimed after his victorious Allard debut last week), paced to the lead in the stretch, then held off the horse who had been behind him much of the way, Naked City, by a neck in 1:51.3.

 

The win by Avenue Hanover was the final in a consecutive Allard triple, while in the two seconds, the only driver finishing ahead of them was the U.S. Harness Writers Association's Rising Star award winner, Marcus Miller, with the opening victory behind One To Draw To resulting in a $65.60 win mutuel. Marcus was the leading sulkysitter at the mountain oval last year in the category of $50+ winners with ten, and though he says, "I'd rather be known as the King Of The Favorites than the King Of The Longshots," his talent for maximizing the talent of marginally-chanced horses shone through again.

 

The first race in which the Allard stable finished off the board all night was a co-featured $18,000 claiming pace restricted to 4- and 5-year-olds, which saw the Veeza gelding Next Success take his fourth straight success in 1:53.3. But the path to the winners circle was one seldom taken by a victorious horse: Next Success actually was fastest out of the gate for driver Jim Morrill Jr. but made a break, settling at the back of the pack after catching quickly (but still over 14 lengths out at the ¼).

 

Next Success certainly had the fractions go his way (54.4 first half, 58.4 second half), but he still had to rally five-wide on the far turn and through the lane, where his desire for his next success carried him to the line first in the last few steps for trainer Les Givens and the ownership of Henry Faragalli III, Nanticoke Racing Inc., and Bay Pond Racing Stable. (Final note: If Next Success is to make it five in a row in his next trip behind the gate, he'll be doing it for the Allard barn, who claimed the winner.)

 

The Sir Luck gelding Casimir Jitterbug, who boosted his lifetime bankroll over $960,000 with a victory in the $15,500 top conditioned pace, gave every indication that his achieving seven figures in career earnings is imminent, with much pacing prowess shown in his 1:50.4 win. Looped out of the gate, "Casimir" and driver George Napolitano Jr. jitterbugged to the lead at the quarter, fought off the first-over foe, and then drew away in the last quarter for trainer Andrew Harris and F Bellino and Sons LLC.

 

In the companion $15,500 trot, the Crazed gelding Andy Ray took a new mark of 1:53.3 for trainer Jim Campbell, the Runthetable Stables, and driver Marcus Miller in the second of the early "Marcus over Simon" contests. Skates N Plates skated swiftly to a 1:23.4 ¾ with a clear lead, but in the stretch he could not maintain his lead, and Andy Ray went by to post a 1¼ length victory over ABC Muscles Boy.

 

Featured during the Sunday night card at Pocono, which will begin at 7:30 p.m., will be the second preliminary round of the $750,000 Bobby Weiss Series for developing 4- and 5-year-olds. The pacers will be in the Sunday spotlight as they contest $15,000 purses, with four divisions of males and three of females set to provide plenty of competitive sulky action.