Talented fields in Saturday season’s opener at Pocono
At 0h02, on February 12, 2026 • By PHHA-Pocono Downs
Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania starts off its 2026 season with a 1 p.m. program on Saturday, February 14, and it is as solid a racing card as may have been presented during any of the previous sixty Pocono curtainraisers.
There is a $27,500 fast-class feature for seasoned veterans on both gaits. The sixth race trot is a handicap affair, with the four outermost starters in the field of seven showing a victory on their top lines. The Brodster, starting from the far outside for trainer Per Engblom, will be going for his fifth straight victory; his stablemate Ultion Face N, a wire-to-wire at Yonkers last Thursday, starts just inside him.
Engblom also has a pair in the $27,500 pacing headliner. Pinny Tiger A had won five straight starts before ending his 2025 with a head defeat at the hands of Lou Hill – the other Engblom trainee, and away from the races since that December 27 triumph. Pinny Tiger A opened his 2026 campaign with a rallying win in 1:50.4 at The Meadows on January 31, and will start from post three in this seven-horse field, with Lou Hill beginning from the five slot.
The inaugural card will also feature five $15,000 divisions of the first preliminary leg of the popular Game Of Claims Pacing Series, the fields in for a base tag of $25,000 this week. Brandon Presto, the leading trainer at The Meadows, will load up a truck with six GOC series horses for an eastern invasion, and the sextet show eleven wins among their past performance lines. Paul Blumenfeld, Cory Stratton, and Darren Taneyhill will have starters from their respective barns in four of the five divisions of the GOC series, which culminates in a $35,000 Championship on Saturday, March 7.
