Mr Houdini needed little magic to win the $16,000 trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Friday afternoon – he just needed his native ability, which enabled him to come home in :57 over a “sloppy +2” surface to take a new mark of 1:56.
Andrew McCarthy quickly had the altered son of Kadabra on the lead, and the winner of three straight rattled off splits of :29.1, :59.1 and 1:27.3 on the engine. Girl Talk had stayed close to the winner throughout and tried to rally from the pocket late, but Mr Houdini saw that one’s late bid off by three-quarters of a length for trainer Ron Burke and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
The top pacing event of the day was an event for distaffs worth $14,500, and heading to the wire three of the four involved in the drive were New Zealanders, with the import Nike Franco N (handled by Tim Tetrick, the lone non-Kiwi) withstood a big late charge from Delightfulmemphisn and the “Down Under Wonder,” driver Dexter Dunn, to prevail in 1:52.4 in the off going. Tetrick had moved the victorious daughter of McArdle past early leader Oceania past the :27.1 quarter, put up middle fractions of :56.3 and 1:24.2, and looked free and clear at headstretch. But Delightfulmemphisn angled four-wide and cut into the lead with every stride in the lane, only to come up a half-length short on the money.
The winner, trained by Scott Di Domenico, recorded her second straight win, and now has lifetime earnings of $822,029 while raising her career win ratio to 43 per cent (32-for-75). She is owned by William Hartt, Foulk Stables Inc., JFE Enterprise LLC, and Triple D Stables Inc.
(PHHA/Harrah’s Philadelphia)