It was John & Dan Wach's Canadian Wildcat pulling off the upset in the feature at Harrah's Philadelphia on Thursday.
The five-year-old son of Angus Hall was coming off of three straight off-the-board finishes against similar competition, facing non-winners of $17,500 in their last five starts on Thursday. The odds board was wide open, however, as four of the eight combatants were under 3-1, with the favourite going off 5-2.
At the start, it was Possessed Fashion (Ron Pierce) and Yagot Class (Tim Tetrick) leaving well for the lead, as Canadian Wildcat (Mike Simons) settled off the early tempo. The opening quarter went in :28. The battle raged on up top, as classy veteran Bastille (David Miller) forced another lead change under the finish line the first time, and was first to the half in :56.2 (:28).
Possessed Fashion made another move towards the lead up the backstretch, and battled first over while Bloodstockshalltab (Yannick Gingras) took up second over position, as the field bunch at three-quarters in 1:25.3 (:29.1) Turning for home, the speed gave way, allowing Canadian Wildcat to split rivals in the final steps, winning by a neck, stopping the clock in 1:55.4 (30.1). Bloodstockshalltab settled for second, while Possessed Fashion was third.
The Dawn Dellaporte trainee returned $98.20, keying an exacta worth $668.20. Once again, driver Tim Tetrick led the day with three wins. He was coming off of a six-win performance on Wednesday. Live harness racing returns on Friday, with a special post time of 2:30 p.m.
(Harrah's Philadelphia)