by Tony Verruso
It was a bit misty and the temperatures dropped considerably for the AHDC amateur trot at Mohegan Sun Pocono Downs on Sunday. Unfortunately for the even money post time favorite Clarion Hall with Joe Pennacchio driving the temperature wasn't the only thing that cooled off. The big gelding's streak of three wins in a row including the AHDC race last week came to a crashing halt.
Clarion Hall did leave the gate as he has in weeks past, but Lucky June Bug and
Bob Krivelin made him work pretty hard to get the top this week. Pennacchio was
able rate a 30:3 second quarter which jammed up the field a bit. With the
trotters in tight quarters, Big Nudge guided by Tony Verruso, who was running
up on French Moni and Paul Minore, pulled first up from fourth and steadily
gained on the leader. Midway up the bacstretch Verruso urged his horse as he
saw Clarion Hall not as sharp as the previous week shortening strides and
cleared to the front heading into the last turn. Lucky June Bug slid out behind
him but could not muster a late bid and just held of a strong closing
Silvermass Volo and Maria de Bruijn for second.
For the winner Big Nudge trained by Symon Spicer, it was his first win of the
year in nine tries returning $10.60 to win and trotting an impressive mile in
1:55:3. It was Tony Verruso's eleventh win of the year and twenty fifth race
hitting the board in thirty three starts for a UDRS of .522.
