Thisguyisonfire again lived up to his name on Thursday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, taking his fourth decision in his last five trips to the gate with a 1:55.1 victory in the $18,000 headlining trot.
Andrew McCarthy got the son of Yankee Glide away third behind pacesetting Majestic Presence and favoured Fashion Creditor as fractions of :28.3 and :57.4 were put up. Thisguyisonfire decided to put some heat on the leader late on the backstretch, and by the 1:26.3 three-quarter pole he was ready to sweep past the pacesetter. Fashion Creditor got out behind the winner midturn as the rest of the field was left behind and gave a good accounting of himself in the stretch, but Thisguyisonfire prevailed by a length. Trainer Chris Lakata and owner Richard Mishkin now have two wins and a second to the good Trolley since acquiring this horse in mid-November, with $23,000 in earnings a good rate of return for less than a month of investment.
In the $17,000 co-featured trot, the Kadabra gelding Mr Houdini used two speed moves before the three-eighths to control the tempo, then went on to post a new lifetime best of 1:55.3. Clive Bigsby, the favourite, had bad racing luck and was shuffled, then finished with a rush but came up two and a quarter lengths behind the winner, who was driven by Yannick Gingras for trainer Ron Burke and the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC.
Driver Marcus Miller got behind a pair of horses who were a combined 0-for-56 in 2018 and generated mutuel gold with a pair of longshot victories. The first win came behind the pocket rocket Myells Rockstar ($67.80) in the second race; then in race twelve, taking advantage of a 1-2 shot and an 8-5 shot both offstride before the first turn, Miller went wire-to-wire with Aldebaran Eureka, lighting up the toteboard at $63.00. Marcus Miller is only the second driver to have two $50+ horses on one card at Harrah’s in 2018 -- Eric Carlson turned the trick, in consecutive races, on September 5.
(PHHA / Harrah's Philadelphia)