Three horses won off of cover, all second-over trips, during the Wednesday afternoon card at Harrah’s Philadelphia. Two of them were the feature race winners, and the other came in the last race as the only non-favourite of the day to emerge victorious.
Muscle M Up, a winner a level higher when last at Philly, reunited with the local surroundings successfully in taking the $18,000 feature level trot. The son of Muscle Hill tucked fourth early, then followed the first-over horse at the half under the guidance of Andrew McCarthy. The winner went three-wide at the third quarter mark and proved much the best in the stretch, winning by 3-1/4 lengths over Mississippi Storm in 1:54.1 to boost his seasonal earnings over six figures for trainer Åke Svanstedt and Knutsson Trotting Inc.
In a $17,000 co-feature trot, the developing Chapter Seven sophomore colt Hatikvah also found the overland trip with cover to be the right path to victory, though he had to work pretty hard to get by a pulling pocket-sitter IMF to win by a half-length in 1:56.1 after a “+1” variant had been granted because of a strong wind. Matias Melander drove the promising youngster for trainer Marcus Melander and the ownership of Richard Gutnick, Thomas Pontone, Joseph Lozito Jr., and Ted Gewertz.
Philly favourite players had had things their way almost the entire card, with the first 13 races going to the public choice – the longest such streak in recent (or not-so-recent) memory. But Kinda Lucky Lindy could not complete the favourite “sweep” – he went first-over against pacesetter Abbies Celticlass, yet could do no better than third as Perfect Stick and driver George Napolitano Jr. swung wide off cover and got by Abbies Celticlass by 2-3/4 lengths, with Kinda Lucky Lindy settling for third in the 1:55.3 mile. The winner, a Big Stick Lindy mare who paid $18.40, is trained by Anette Lorentzon for Yinson Quezada.
Harrah’s Philadelphia will be dark for live racing tomorrow, Thanksgiving; live racing will resume Friday at 12:25 p.m.
(PHHA / Harrah’s Philadelphia)