Pocono: $200,000 PA Fair Finals scheduled for Monday

$200,000 will be on the line when the best of the performers who raced on the Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes circuit this summer clash for “bragging rights” in eight $25,000 divisional Championships on Monday afternoon (Oct. 13) at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania.

Three of last year’s four Fair Champions as 2-year-olds are back to attempt to double up on their titles. Two of them, both from the Tony and Linda Schadel barn, have been the top performers of the whole fair circuit on their respective gaits, while the third had not won a fair race until two weeks ago, but stamped himself ready with a pair of powerhouse miles.

One of the Schadels’ defending champions is the Greenshoe trotting gelding Lionheart Hanover, who posted the most wins of any fair horse in 2025, 13, and also recorded the fastest fair mile on the trot, 1:58 2/5. He will be starting from the rail in race 12 and the Schadels have engaged Pocono’s leading driver, Tyler Buter, to handle “Lionheart” and other Championship horses from their barn.

A win by Lionheart Hanover would have special meeting, as Lionheart Hanover was the seasonal pointsleader (based on finishes throughout the summer season) and the Championship winner at 2, and he also led his group (in fact, every other fair horse) in points at 3; should he pull off the “double double,” Lionheart Hanover would be the first trotter and only second horse in the history of the fair program to do so. The other was pacing filly Bettor Strait N Up in 2021-2022, and “Lionheart” couldn’t be in better hands approaching this possibility – for it was Tony and Linda who campaigned Bettor Strait N Up.

The Schadels will join again with Buter to try to take the pacing filly title for a second straight year. Milagro, a daughter of Always B Miki, notched 12 successes over the summer, and eight of them were in 2:00 or less, by far the best total recorded in this speed category (she also set the speed record for her baby Championship last year). The leading pacer of any stripe as a point-winner, Milagro will begin from post six in the eleventh race.

Sweet Parlay was last year’s pacing colt champion, but this year he had not even won in limited fair campaigning – until two weeks ago. Then he exploded: the Sweet Lou gelding won at Meadville in 1:57 4/5, the fastest mile ever at that track, and then last week he tied the Dayton track record at 1:57 2/5. Chris Shaw has the driving assignment from post seven in the tenth race for trainer Richard Dunn, co-owner with MBC Stables LLC.

This division, the traditional “glamour division,” also contains the points champion, Bettor Not (post one, driver Cody Schadel), and the author of the fastest mile at the fairs this year, 1:54 4/5, Fasting (post eight, driver Jeremy Indof).

The other 3-year-old Championship, for filly trotters in race five, sees another 12-time winner and point-leader in the International Moni filly Tally The Tab, who has won her last 10 starts on the twice-around circuit. Trained and driven by the 2025 fair leader in both categories, Todd Schadel (Tony’s brother), and co-owned by him with his wife Christine, Tally The Tab faces a challenge, though, in solving the difficult outside post eight starting assignment.

The two winningest 2-year-olds at the fairs this year, a pair of trotters, both had nine victories, and both enter their Championships on long winning streaks as well. Pa Patricia goes into the filly trot having won seven races in a row and leading her group; she starts from post three in the seventh race for driver Chris Shaw, trainer Ashley Brown, and owners Sandy Petersen and Alexa Shaw.

The other nine-time trotting freshman winner, the International Moni gelding Nose Jammer, has an even longer winner streak, eight (which unfortunately is also his post number), but he wasn’t even his divisional points champion: that would be the Fordham Road gelding RT Wonder Colt, a consistent 16-6-8-2 over the summer and beginning from slot two for driver Eric Neal, trainer Tom Loughry Jr. and Brocious Racing Stable Inc.

The pacing fillies’ point title went to the last card of the year before Vegas Queen (by Sweet Lou and to be driven from post five by Jim Pantaleano for trainer Neil Balcerak and owner George Prushnok) clinched the coveted cooler in stable colors over Beachy’s Mistress (post four, driver Brady Brown). The freshman pacing colts were an unsettled bunch much of the year; the point champion Party Rock Hanover (post one for Team Tony Schadel) had only two victories, but one was the fastest mile of the year by a 2-year-old, 1:57.

Pocono is racing on a Saturday-Monday-Tuesday schedule during the fall, all cards beginning at 1 p.m. Free Pocono program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

-edited release (Pocono/PHHA)