The Bettors Delight gelding Love The Action, who sat out last week’s Game Of Claims Pacing Series final preliminary for $10,000-based pacers after posting a second and a first, got into the final as the last of nine qualifying horses one point ahead of the AE1 and then made the wait worthwhile by winning the $20,000 Series Championship in 1:53.4 on Sunday (March 7) at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.
Claimed by trainer Gilbert Garcia-Herrera and owner Gilbert-Garcia Owen from his series win, Love The Action was sent the 6-5 favourite. Driver George Napolitano Jr. was very aggressive with him, hanging Bamski to a :26.4 opening number, then reclaiming command by the :55.4 half. Second-choice Sweet Talkin Satin, the only horse at any level of the series to win all three of his prelims, came the rough first-over trip to the 1:24.1 three-quarters and pressured the leader into the stretch.
The Always A Virgin gelding Sweet Talkin Satin, racing for a $10,000 base tag in the Game Of Claims Pacing Series at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, became the only horse in the Game Of Claims’ four levels to win all three of his preliminary legs while succeeding during the Sunday (Feb. 28).
The 11-year-old, with a $629,284 career bankroll, posted a 1:53.2 victory over a sloppy going, smashing his field by 10-and-a-quarter lengths.
And if he is to have success in the $20,000 series championship next Sunday, he’ll have to do it for yet another new barn. Sweet Talkin Satin has now been claimed out of all three of those prelim victories.
George Napolitano Jr. drove three of the four winners in $10,000 second preliminary round action of the Game Of Claims Pacing Series for $10,000-base price horses on the Sunday (Feb. 21) card at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono. However, he’s not assured of a drive next week behind any of them – because all three of them were claimed here, as they were last week.
The base claiming price went up to $12,500 for this prelim of the progressively-priced pace, but slips were in for the two repeaters. The faster of the two double winners was the Always A Virgin gelding Sweet Talkin Satin, who paced home strongly in 1:53 with the temperature below freezing for one-week trainer Gilbert Garcia-Herrera and owner Gilbert Garcia-Owen. That last-named duo also lost another new charge of a week: the Bettors Delight gelding Love The Action, who followed up a second last time with a victory in this week’s fastest time among all the Sunday claimers, 1:52.1–a lifetime mark by almost four second