Female pacers were the feature attraction over the racing surface at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, Oct. 23, but throughout the day, there was also excitement and “jockeying for position” in the competition for most seasonal wins on both the driver and trainer sides.

The featured races for developing distaff sidewheelers were topped by a $19,014 conditioned pace in which favourite Maggie Q N raised her local record to 2-1-0 with a 1:52.4 victory in her third start on the engine, coming home in :28 to beat pocket-sitting Hobby Gone Crazy (Art Stafford Jr.) by a half a length. The five-year-old daughter of Captain Crunch-Atla Shangri La N, trained by Jenny Melander for Jose Cervantes of Nazareth, Pennsylvania and Friendship Stables of Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, was driven by Johnathan Ahle, who himself had three victories on a day when multiple wins were plentiful.

The $16,901 co-feature was pari-mutuel chaos, with the top three horses in the betting in the seven-horse field missing hitting the Superfecta (necessitating both a 5-3-ALL Trifecta and a Super carryover). Sophomore pacing filly Pinching Pennies, one of just five offspring sired by Father Nuno, away 56 days but adding Lasix, overcame a two-move adventure to win in a lifetime best 1:53.4 at 21-1 while returning $44 to win. George Napolitano Jr. drove for the Cancelliere brothers, owner/breeder John and trainer Tom. Bivcru Chillicheez (Simon Allard), at 15-1 odds, and 55-1 longshot Shadow Deight (Jack Pelling) were second and third, respectively.

Worth noting is a 1:52.2 maiden win by the royally-bred freshman pacing colt Easygoing (Bulldog Hanover-Economy Terror), who made every pole a winning one with a 9-1/2-length decision for driver Simon Allard, trainer Hunter Oakes (two conditioning wins), and Pennsylvania owners and co-breeders Howard Taylor and Chuck Pompey (who each had a horse they own solely also get to Victory Lane).

Only Tim Tetrick and George Napolitano Jr. have won the driving dash-winning title at Philly for the last 19 years, after the first year of 2006, when Cat Manzi was crowned. Tetrick built up a big lead at this year’s meet as he goes for his sixth straight championship, but he has been largely absent from the local scene the last couple of months during the epicenter of the stakes season. His lead was at 113-109 at the start of the day over Simon Allard, in prime sulky form (.346 UDR at the meet), but then Allard checked home first four times on Friday and is thus tied for the lead with two months to go. (Napolitano also clicked for a four-bagger on the day.)

The trainers’ race has been even tighter: after a contentious Thursday, the day opened with Joe Bongiorno and Scott Di Domenico with 40 victories, and Dean Eckley with 38. Then Eckley, a claiming specialist, won three of the first five races to leapfrog to the top. But the day was not over, and a Bongiorno trainee was victorious late to tie Bongiorno and Eckley at 41 Philly wins. (And it would have been a three-way tie if the Di Domenico horse in the last race hadn’t had to settle for second, beaten a neck!)

Racing at Philly resumes on Sunday at 12:40 p.m. Next week’s Thursday card at 12:25 p.m., featuring the start of the Liberty Bell Stakes series, will be followed on Friday at a special post of 2 p.m. 

(With files from PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia)