Trainer Ray Schnittker and driver Mark MacDonald combined on a trio of winning sophomores during Wednesday morning's qualifying competition at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
The Walner trotting filly Brickhouse Babe, second in the Doherty final last year and a double winner in the Kindergarten Series, trotted her back three-quarters in 1:26.1 while stopping the timer in 1:56.2 for the ownership of trainer Schnittker, Mary Kinsey Arnold, Steve Jones and Paul Bordogna.
Team Schnittker / MacDonald also clicked with a pair of sophomore pacing males: the So Surreal gelding JD, last year’s New York Sire Stakes champion, coming home in :27.4 to win in 1:54.3 for Schnittker, George Zitone and Melissa Beckwith; and the Huntsville colt Hunted House, who led at every call in 1:56.1 for Schnittker, David Pepin and Flintlock Farm Inc.
Racing resumes at Pocono on Saturday at 1:30 p.m., with perhaps the finest card of the year so far at the northeast Pennsylvania oval featuring the $50,000 Weiss Series Championship for three-year-old pacing males and the highly-anticipated showdown between Lanjo Lee and All Or Nothing.
(PHHA/Pocono)