Knutsson Trotting Inc.'s Muscle M Up ($5.80) strode straight to the front and never looked back in Sunday's (Oct. 13) $25,000 Winners-Over Trot at Harrah's Philadelphia, posting a 1:52.3 win with plenty in reserve.
Trainer-driver Åke Svanstedt put the four-year-old son of Muscle Hill in play from the outset of the one-mile race, clearing Theresademoninme easily through a :27 first quarter before rating a :56.1 half. Up the backstretch Muscle M Up started to edge away, extending his lead to two lengths past three-quarters in 1:24. Muscle M Up remained unchallenged to the winning post, keeping a late bid from Scirocco Rob one-and-a-half lengths at bay while Theresademoninme checked in third.
The win was the fifth on the season for Muscle M Up and the ninth of his career.
In the sub-featured event of the afternoon, an $18,000 top-level conditioned pace, American Boy N ($4.60) pushed out of the pocket with three-eighths to go and overtook pacesetter Lyons Steel in progress to a 1:50.2 score. Andy McCarthy drove the eight-year-old American Ideal gelding for trainer Michael Marx Jr. and the Windermere Stable LLC.
Two carryovers will greet punters on Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 16): a $5,881.60 carryover in the fifth-race Jackpot Hi-5, and a $2,228.02 carryover in the Pick-4, which begins in race seven. Post time is 12:25 p.m. (EDT).
(Harrah's Philadelphia)