Pocono: Mark Ford sends out 4,000th winner

Mark Ford sent out the 4,000th winner of his training career when He's Electric took a new mark of 1:51 3/5 in the evening’s fourth race on Sunday at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. The 51-year-old Ford ranks seventh in the USTA's list of all-time winning conditioners, and his $66.7 million in earnings puts him in fifth. A resident of Campbell Hall, New York, Ford serves dually as a USTA Director from New York and as President of the SBOANJ.

Three races after the milestone victory, Ford was already on the road to 5,000 when his Motive Hanover came horse first; both were driven by Tyler Buter.

► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter

Pocono significantly widened its menu of multiple-horse bets starting with the Sunday card, and the benefits of the carryover provision in the new format were exhibited immediately upon their debut, with the first Pick 4, in the first four races, already bringing a $1,372.32 carryover from the unsolved bet Saturday. Sunday's first four winners paid $13.20, $86.60, $27.80, and $15.40, and unsurprisingly no ticket matched those four outsiders, so there was a double carryover of $8,351.25 brought to the second Pick 4, races five through eight.

Pari-mutuel normalcy regained the upper hand in the second Pick 4's races, with $10.00, $8.40, $4,00, and $4.60 winners prevailing. But those modestly-priced horses generated a $129.40 payoff for the Pick 4's minimum 50-cent bet, which translates to $517.60 based on a $2 wager - a super payday for the smart bettors who cashed in.

...but since longshots ruled at the end of the Sunday card as well, there will be a carryover into Monday's Pick 4 ($724.16) in race one, Pick 3 ($278.21) in race four, Pick 5 ($471.75) in race seven, and Pentafecta ($285.72) in race 11.

--press release (PHHA/Pocono)--