Pocono: Mr Big Spender logs fastest mile in Pennsylvania All-Stars

The local stakes season for 2-year-olds opened with a bang on the Monday afternoon before the Fourth of July at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania, as Mr Big Spender trotted the fastest mile of the year for a baby over a five-eighths-mile track, 1:54 2/5, when he won one of four $30,000 divisions of a Pennsylvania All-Stars event.

The Captain Corey-Reilly K colt sat fourth while Dublin Hanover and then Oversear put up fractions of 28 seconds and 57 seconds, with Mr Big Spender starting forward uncovered nearing the three-quarters in 1:25 3/5 and gaining through the lane. The first-over Mr Big Spender and the pace-setting Oversear were inseparable to the naked eye at the wire, but the photo finish showed Mr Big Spender more photogenic by the shortest possible margin under the urging of Matt Kakaley. (had Oversear gotten to the wire first, he would have set a new track record for baby geldings, eclipsing the 1:54 4/5 mark set by Amigo Volo, who was driven by...Matt Kakaley).

Mr Big Spender was the only one of the four All-Stars winners to have a purse race under his belt, qualifying twice free-legged and then adding hopples in a third-place finish. Now, he is a season's leader for trainer Norm Parker and owners Bart and Todd Brice.

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Driver Tim Tetrick, trainer Scott Di Domenico, and the partnership of Di Domenico's Triple D Stables Inc. and Joe Faraldo sent out two first-timers, both coming off winning qualifiers, to All-Stars stakes victories and reducing their best times. One was another son of Captain Corey, the colt Captain Jordan (dam Jordan Blue Chip), who came home from the pocket in 57 2/5 - 28 to win in 1:56 3/5. The other was the International Moni gelding An Honest Buck (dam Honorable Daughter, who won almost a million bucks at the races, was a Dan Patch Award winner and a world record-setter), who didn't clear a pesky Be Green until the three-eighths, then resisted that one inching back up the inside late for a half-length win in 1:57 3/5 - 59 - 29 1/5.

The fourth All-Stars race went to the Bar Hopping-Twice Is Right colt Neighver Punt, who strolled to the half in 1:01, then came home in 57 3/5 for a 1:58 3/5 maiden mark for driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Marcus Melander and Courant Inc.

The excellent Monday card at Pocono also featured a $25,000 distaff fast-class pace, won by the Always A Virgin mare Walkin On Sunshine in 1:50 1/5. The trip was certainly no walk in the park for the seasonal winner of 10 of 15, as she had to surmount the tuck-then-first-over route, with big back fractions of 54 - 26 4/5 allowing her to do that while defeating Dougs Babe A by half a length for driver Jack Pelling, trainer-father Brett Pelling, and owners Maynard Miller, Daniel Lehman, and Michael Yoder.

The racing week at Pocono will close out on Tuesday with a card beginning at 1 p.m., with Tuesday's longtime feature, the claiming handicap for the big-tag trotters on the grounds, again spotlighted.

--press release (PHHA/Pocono)--