Skyway Bebop and Top Me Off won their $15,300 divisions of the featured trot for up-and-coming horses on Thursday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

Skyway Bebop won his fourth straight, and sixth in seven starts since teaming up with driver Anthony Morgan and trainer Tim Crissman. The favourite was sitting the pocket while second choice Big Bad Swan carved out splits of :27.2, :56.2, and 1:25, then moved outside to challenge before head stretch and gained into a :28 last panel to defeat the leader by 1-1/4 lengths while lowering his mark to 1:53. Since purchasing the Guccio mare in late February, Niss Allen Inc has seen her bankroll $40,800 in two months.

Top Me Off, the winningest three-year-old trotting male in North America last year with 15 successes, continued in strong form while winning the other feature division in 1:55.2. The son of Bar Hopping used grinding tactics in defeating Fifty Ways by 1-3/4 lengths for driver Tim Tetrick and trainer/owner Arlene Cameron, boosting his lifetime bankroll to $174,109.

A $13,000 fast-class trot went to the Cantab Hall gelding Macmorris Hanover, whom David Miller sent right to the lead and posted numbers of :27.4, :57.3, and 1:26 before snapping off a :28 kicker to complete the 1:54 mile. The career winner of $243,883 is conditioned by Robert Baggitt, Jr. for the partnership of Howard Taylor, Ben Mudry, Douglas Millard and Timothy Murray.

No official records are kept, but it would be surprising if one track has ever seen one card produce eight trots in 1:55f or faster – as was the case on the warm afternoon at Philly. Besides the two feature winners, others were Infinity Stone (1:52.4), Donzel Hanover (1:53.2), Spy Booth (1:53.3), Famous Father (1:54.1), Blank Space AS (1:54.4), and Dandy (1:55).

(PHHA / Harrah’s Philadelphia)