Sun Stakes Saturday bringing stars to Pocono Downs

The lure of $2.3 million in purses, plus in many cases divisional bragging rights, have attracted a sizable portion of harness racing’s stars to Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania this Saturday afternoon (Aug. 16) for its biggest card of the year, Sun Stakes Saturday. The 14 -race program, starting at 2:30 p.m. (EDT), is bringing to the mountain oval many of the best horses in North American harness racing, both this year and in recent campaigns.

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 2025, with a maximum of eight horses per field. The two stakes for males, the Earl Beal Jr. 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 M. Lynch Memorial Pace and Delmonica Hanover Trot, the companion events for fillies, have $250,000-$125,000-$75,000 sections, also separated by 2025 earnings.

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

Here is a brief look at the top horses in the major contests on the Sun Stakes Saturday card, per event – normally, “the boys,” with their bigger purses, would be mentioned first, but there is one filly showdown that has been awaited for months, and so it will be at the top for us:

JAMES M. LYNCH MEMORIAL PACE ($250,000 division race 10; $125,000 division race 6, $75,000 division race 2):
Everybody’s been looking forward to the matchup between Miki And Minnie, No. 1 in the most recent Hambletonian Society/Breeders Crown poll and Dan Patch Award winner last year, and Chantilly, Harness Horse of the Year in Canada after an undefeated freshman campaign, and that confrontation is set for Saturday.

Miki And Minnie (post two, driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Chris Ryder) has won seven times in eight seasonal starts (the only horse to beat her, Rodeo Drive Deo at Pocono by a head, starts just inside her Saturday), and has won her last four starts, all stakes, by over 10 lengths combined. She’s versatile and determined and has a familiarity with five-eighth-mile tracks.

Chantilly (post six, driver James MacDonald, trainer Nick Gallucci) ventures away from her home track of Woodbine Mohawk Park for the first time in her career. She has had brilliant success at the Toronto-area oval, winning all nine of her freshman races and the first four races of her sophomore campaign. It will be interesting to see how she bounces back from her first loss, a race against older foes last Friday, in which she had terrible traffic trouble.

DELMONICA HANOVER TROT ($250,000 division race 11; $125,000 division race 7, $75,000 division race 1):
There’s another big filly showdown in the Delmonica Hanover, between two misses in the Top Ten meeting for the first time: Conversano and Yo Tillie. Conversano (post three, driver James MacDonald, trainer Juan Cano) comes off a victory in the Grade 1 Hambletonian Oaks, and the methodical miss has come in first in seven of nine seasonal starts.

Yo Tillie (post seven, driver Todd McCarthy, trainer Andrew Harris) was not eligible for the Hambletonian Oaks, but she has been wreaking stakes havoc when she has raced, going undefeated in five starts. Yo Tillie has been showing blistering speed on mile ovals; her adjustment to an outside post on a smaller oval will be a key here.

MAX C. HEMPT MEMORIAL PACE ($300,000 division race 12; $200,000 division race 8, $100,000 division race 4):
Louprint, last year’s Dan Patch award winner in this group, was impressive while undefeated in 2025 until being injured and going to the sidelines. The two colts who have best filled the opening left by Louprint are Prince Hal Hanover (post one, driver Todd McCarthy, trainer Ian Moore) and Twisted Destiny (post three, driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Chris Ryder).

Prince Hal Hanover has used his gate speed and handiness to take the division’s last two major events, the Adios and the Carl Milstein Memorial. Twisted Destiny won the MGM Grand Messenger Pace, has not been far behind “Prince Hal” in his last two races, and gave Louprint all he wanted in a race at Pocono earlier this year.

Captain Optimistic, winner of the Cane Pace, and Dandy Ideal, who was in the photo with Twisted Destiny in the Messenger and has since won four straight, are ignored at your own peril.

EARL BEAL JR. MEMORIAL TROT ($300,000 division race 13; $200,000 division race 9, $100,000 division race 3):
The horses likely to be most fancied in the Beal start from the middle of the gate: Super Chapter (post four, driver Dexter Dunn, trainer Marcus Melander) and Emoticon Legacy (post five, driver Louis Roy, trainer Luc Blais).

Super Chapter ripped off five wins in stakes company to start his 2025 campaign, then had to settle for second in the Hambletonian as he was caught behind a tiring pacesetter and could not rebuild momentum quickly enough. Emoticon Legacy rang up four wins, also all in stakes, to start the year before having a subpar day at the Hambletonian, but it wouldn’t be hard to see him bounce back and be right in the picture.

SEBASTIAN K TROT ($100,000; race 5):
Warrawee Michelle, the winner of the 2024 Delmonica Hanover on Sun Stakes Saturday, has an opportunity to perform an impressive double as she starts from post three in the Invitational trot. She brings the right connections: the race is named after track-record-holder Sebastian K S, last year’s winner was the great Jiggy Jog S, and both of those horses – and Warrawee Michelle – were handled by Åke Svanstedt.

Security Protected came from 11th at the three-quarters in his last start, the John Cashman Memorial, to be second to Periculum, but his chances Saturday were not helped at the post draw when he was stuck behind the 8-ball.

ALWAYS B MIKI PACE ($100,000; race 14):
Ken Hanover (post three, driver David Miller, trainer Roland “Polie” Mallar) has been the “form” horse of the Invitational pacing group, with six wins in eight 2025 starts and a Pocono victory on his resume. He’s likely to be the one to have to go through to win the Always B Miki.

Captain Albano won the Hempt Pace last year, so he has an opportunity similar to the one Warrawee Michelle has, completing a special Sun Stakes Saturday “double.” The two inside horses, Abuckabett Hanover and Maximus Miki, also appear to be major dangers in here.

And don’t think the “consolation races” for the 3-year-old don’t have some firepower, either: for example, the very first race of the day, the third-ranked of the Delmonica Hanover races, has merely this sector’s 2024 divisional champion, Champagne Problems, and last year’s Breeders Crown winner in this group, Lady Landia.