Top stars in Pocono’s $2,242,500 Sun Stakes Saturday

The lure of $2,242,500 in purses has attracted many of harness racing’s stars to The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono on Saturday afternoon (Aug. 20) for its biggest card of the year, Sun Stakes Saturday. The 14-race program, starting at 1:30 p.m., is bringing to the mountain oval five of the top ten horses in the most recent Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll, including the leading trotter, Bella Bellini, and Hambletonian winner Cool Papa Bell.

The major format of the day is as follows: each of the four divisions of 3-year-olds, separated by sex and gait, are seeded by their money earnings in 2022, with a maximum of eight horses per field. The two races for males, the Earl Beal Memorial Trot and the Max C. Hempt Memorial Pace, will race for $300,000, $200,000, and $100,000 in three races for each respective group as sorted by seasonal money winnings. The James Lynch Memorial Pace, which has $250,000-$125,000-$75,000 sections, is for fillies, as is the Delmonica Hanover Trot, which drew enough entrants to fill only two divisions, going for $250,000-$125,000.

There will also be $100,000 Invitationals for the top older horses on both gaits: the Always B Miki Pace and the Sebastian K S Trot, named after the co-fastest pacer and fastest trotter ever at Pocono.