When the Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono’s racing secretary Rick Kane looked at the box on Tuesday morning he wasn’t sure what to expect. The track opener scheduled for Saturday combined two extremely new unknowns for Kane. First, the track had not opened in February since the advent of slots and second, and perhaps even more important, was that the barn area no longer exists. “I had no idea what to expect,” said Kane. “I was extremely happy when I saw 155 horses entered.” It was a compliment to Kane but also a compliment to the horsemen that had actively pushed for a shorter down time between the traditional November closing dates and a late-March, early-April opener. While the job of racing secretary has changed with computerization, the demand for horses and the knowledge of where they’re coming from is vital to putting on any program. “You just never know where they are going to come from,” Kane said candidly. It’s one of the difficulties in starting early and without a known cast of characters to rely on. With the barn area permanently closed there was a large segment of horses that Kane had to assume would be present, if they weren’t already accounted for. “I would say the stable area population fluctuated over time,” said Kane. “If you’re looking for numbers, I’d say between 300 and 400 horses were stabled there.” Therein lies the challenge of putting on programs in February. Normally Kane would have a clue of the names of horses stabled and what they were capable of. That could serve as a guideline for what races to put on. At the same time, Kane wasn’t sitting idly and hoping the box filled. Instead he offered some late-closing races with solid opportunity for trainers racing claimers. “I really didn’t know what to expect,” said Kane of the response to the claiming series. “I think we did pretty well for the first of them. We got two divisions of the $25,000-30,000 claimer and three divisions of the $15,000-20,000.” The series begins on Saturday night where Kane was able to card 13 races with a first post time of 5:00 p.m. Sunday’s draw was completed in good order and once again 13 was the lucky number for those who will follow the game. Interesting on Sunday was that just 11 horses entered the claiming series for the $10,000 level, leaving a pair of shorter fields, while a full 16 showed up at the reduced $7,500 level. Pocono is clearly testing the waters with its early start, but with football season now in the past and very little to compete with, the weekend programs with the 5:00 p.m. post may catch more eyes than generally focus in this direction. With the stable area gone, a new 44-stall ship-in facility is ready for those horsemen still looking to utilize the five-eighths mile oval for weekly training. “I think you will see a lot of horsemen ship in to train here,” said Kane. “It depends on where they are stabled of course.” While Kane and the horsemen have successfully crossed the first hurdle of the winter race schedule, there are still some other obstacles that may need to be crossed. “So far the weather has been holding up,” said Kane with a bit of cautious optimism. “We have a great track maintenance crew and they are prepared for pretty much of anything.” Pocono will expand to three times a week in March and add a fourth day in April when they traditionally would open the doors. While Kane does admit that his job is quite different than it once was when physical papers had to be present for horses to enter, he says there is still the dynamic between trainers and race secretaries. “Sure, I will get calls asking if a particular class is going to fill or not,” said Kane. “It’s helpful when I know from a few trainers that they are looking to fill a particular class.” Purses are the biggest driving force to attract horses and horsemen. In devising a claiming series where the purses equal the actual value of each horse, Kane was able to put together a pair of solid openers.