Trainer Julie Miller sent out the fastest divisional winner of each sex as 3-year-old trotters raced for $20,000 a cut in the Bobby Weiss Series Monday afternoon over a track rated "good" at Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania. The two main drivers of "Team Orange Crush" each got a victory in the sophomore action, and both "Team" horses also posted the biggest winning margin for their division.
The colts and geldings were coming back for their second Weiss preliminary, and no one was able to put together two straight wins. The fastest winner in the second round was the Walner gelding Te Quiero Lindy, who couldn't make a stretch lead stand up in the first leg, but today he left his opponents 5 1/4 lengths behind after a 1:56 2/5 mile. Julie Miller's son Tyler had the steer behind the four-time seasonal winner for Andy Miller Stable Inc., Patrick Hoopes, and Lindy Farms of Connecticut.
Trainer Nifty Norman also had a winner of each sex in the Monday Weiss contests, his male winner being the Gimpanzee gelding Bondsman. Putting on hopples to be third, only a neck back, in the first round, Bondsman here sat a pocket trip, then caught Green Mel in 1:56 4/5, his margin of defeat last week turning into his winning advantage here. The meet's leading driver, Tyler Buter (he, Braxten Boyd, and David Miller each had three Monday victories), had the sulky duty for Kovach Stables LLC. and Enzed Racing Stable Inc.
The Chapter Seven colt Karinchak, who lost all chance after an interference break late in the first leg, was put on the lead early by driver Matt Kakaley and carried on to a 1:56 3/5 race mark in the other male sector; trainer Ray Schnittker co-owns the winner with Ted Gewertz, Arden Homestead Stable, and Steven Arnold.
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On the filly side, Team Miller's Face Time Bourbon filly Gilda Bi was the fastest of the three Weiss first prelim's winners of her sex, not only putting up the swiftest time, 1:56 1/5 (faster than any of the males), but also enjoying the biggest margin of victory, 8 1/4 lengths. Andy Miller, Julie's husband and Tyler's father, guided the talented filly for M Biasuzzi Stable Inc.
Nifty Norman's filly winner in the Weiss was Admiring, home safely in 1:57 3/5 for driver David Miller and making Walner the only sire to post a double in the day's featured competition. Admiring, finishing strongly for the win, is owned by Tony Holmes and June Zent.
Rounding out the day's Weiss winners was the Six Pack filly Halfadozen, who got her own way on the lead to the half, then held off Entertain Me by a neck while lowering her lifetime-best to 1:59 for driver Daniel Dube and trainer Pierre Paradis, with Dube co-owner with Jean-Claude Dessureault.
On Tuesday the trotters get their shot in Game Of Claims Trotting Series action, as there will be eight $15,000 divisions of the first preliminary for horses base-tagged at $20,000.
--press release (PHHA/Pocono)--