The “glamour boys,” the 3-year-old male pacers, were at Pocono for the Memorial Day Monday holiday card, competing in three divisions of a $138,758 Pennsylvania Sire Stake.
The acclaimed Betting Line colt Night Hawk lived up to his accolades in his Sires division, winning in 1:48 4/5 – a new mark, the fastest mile of the year at Pocono, and tying Let It Ride N yesterday at Harrah’s Philly for fastest mile in eastern Pennsylvania in 2022.
But you can’t tell this Night Hawk story without giving due credit to Mad Max Hanover. “Max” made the lead just past the 26 3/5 quarter, then kept up a searing pace with midsplits of 54 2/5 and 1:21 2/5; the field stayed strung out until David Miller moved Night Hawk out late on the backstretch, soon hooking up with the leader.
In early stretch Night Hawk gained a slight advantage, but Mad Max Hanover hung in there dead-game to the wire, and the difference between the two Pennsylvania All-Stars winners here earlier was only a neck on the money. Night Hawk now has five wins in six lifetime starts, his only loss a second in the first leg of the Sires, and he looks likely to be in the headlines for a while for trainer Brian Brown and owners Leeman Lombardo Stable, Joe Sbrocco, In The Gym Partners, and Acadia Farms Inc.
Other than the star performance of Night Hawk, it was pretty much The Sweet Lou Show the rest of the stakes afternoon, as the noted sire produced the other two Sire Stakes winners.
Along with the top two mentioned above, the third All-Stars winner here earlier was the colt Market Based, and he took his second Pocono start with a victory in 1:50 4/5. Dexter Dunn got the two-hole behind P J Lou as that one was on a wide lead through fractions of 27 2/5 and 56, then narrowed in. The outer tier didn’t make too much headway in the fast third quarter of 26 4/5, giving Dunn plenty of room to edge out from the two-hole and go right to the lead, defeating inside late gainer Ario Hanover by 1 1/4 lengths.
Market Based broke in his seasonal bow in the first Sire Stakes, but he’s been perfect in a pair of starts since for trainer Nancy Takter and owners Chuck Pompey, Edwin Gold, and H&M Taylor Stable. He now has $261,183 on his career card.
A five-horse division of the Sire Stakes saw the unusual (even in a big field) configuration of horses going four-wide into the first turn, with Captain Cowboy taking over from Six Feet Apart past a 26 2/5 quarter. The favorite Captain Cowboy was relatively unbothered through middle fractions of 55 1/5 and 1:23 1/5, but on the far turn he had to meet the challenge of Fourever Boy, who took back to fourth early then came uncovered nearing the final bend. The pair were joined by Six Feet Apart, who inched ever-closer in the Pocono Pike, and in a dramatic three-way late battle, the Sweet Lou colt Fourever Boy was a nose ahead of Six Feet Apart in a new mark of 1:51 1/5, with Captain Cowboy another neck back in third.
Fourever Boy was winning for only the second time in his career, but good checks in freshman stakes company enabled him to raise his career bankroll to $244,795. Mike Wilder got everything he could from Fourever Boy for trainer Tim Twaddle, who is also co-owner with Micki Rae Stables LLC.
Source credited to: drf.com
