Arch Madness, Golden Receiver shine in opens

Trotter Arch Madness and pacer Golden Receiver won their respective Opens in the featured races on a sloppy Saturday night at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs. Both the Open trot and the Open handicap pace carried a purse of $50,000.

Arch Madness (Balanced Image-Armbro-Archer), an 8-year-old gelding owned by Marc Goldberg and Willow Pond LLC, was sent to the front by trainer and driver Trond Smedshammer and got away with easy fractions on his way to the Open trot win. Anders Bluestone made a brief charge at the 3-5 favorite in the stretch, but Arch Madness, who pushed his career earnings up to $3,641,585 with the win, put him away by three-quarters of a length in 1:53:2 in the slop. Tober finished 3rd.

In the Open Handicap pace, Golden Receiver (Village Jove-Royal Gold), the pride of the Mark Harder barn who is owned by Taylor, Simmonds, Springer, and Stable 45, made the lead a few steps into the race despite the outside post and was till there at the end, holding off fast-closing Bettor Sweet to win by a half-length. The 7-year-old gelding, driven to victory by George Napolitano Jr., won for the 13th time in 21 starts this season and paced the mile in 1:50:1. Silent Swing finished 3rd. (Pocono)

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