Pocono: Allywag Hanover nets a hat trick in Always B Miki Invitational

To finish out the Sun Stakes Saturday program at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, Allywag Hanover won the $100,000 Always B Miki Invitational for the third straight year. He was driven by Todd McCarthy for trainer Brett Pelling in the 1:48 4/5 mile.

Starting from post six, Allywag Hanover left quickly and moved up on the outside to take the top spot away from early leader Tattoo Artist (Tim Tetrick) past the 26 3/5 opening quarter. Allywag Hanover was unchallenged from there as he put up middle-half fractions of 54 and 1:20 4/5 on his way to the victory. South Beach Star (Brian Sears) got up for second in the passing lane after a three-hole trip, finishing 2 1/2 lengths behind the winner, and Stonebridge Helios (Dexter Dunn) wound up third after an unsuccessful first-over attempt in the backstretch.

"That's pretty cool. That's a rare thing to do," McCarthy said about Allywag Hanover taking the same race three consecutive times. "That's a full credit to Brett for having the horse ready each time we come here. He likes it here, he gets over the track pretty good, and that was a good mile for him today. He's always been a horse that takes a handful of starts to come back into form. That sort of held us up, that incident in Canada (where he was involved in the spill in the Mohawk Gold Cup back in June), but he's certainly back to his best at the moment.

"It was a pretty tough win for him there working around the to front. That was pretty brave the way he did it there today. He was covering the ground pretty good down the backstretch, and I was happy to let him slide and try and get a headstart on some of those other ones. He finished up pretty good."

A 6-year-old gelding by Captaintreacherous, Allywag Hanover is owned by Allywag Stable. This was his 26th career victory, he has now earned $1,822,292. He was the 4-5 favorite and paid $3.80 to win.