Multiple stakes winning trotter Big Rigs kept his four-year-old record in tact with a wire-to-wire score in the featured $35,000 Open Handicap while glamour boy Easy Again won his season's debut to highlight Friday afternoon's harness racing card at Harrah's Chester
.
Making his second start of the season, Big Rigs and driver David Miller fired to command from post six in the eight-horse Open field and carved out fractions of :28, :57, and 1:24.4 en route to the 1:53.4 two length triumph. Tagyoureit Hanover and Corey Callahan advanced first over into second while And Heez Perfect and Eric Carlson finished third off a three-hole trip.
Big Rigs paid $4 to win as the even-money choice. He is trained by Kelly O'Donnell for Millers Stable Inc., DM Stables LLC, and C. Ed Mullinax.
The son of Andover Hall out of Filly At Bigs won the Matron Stake and a division of the Bluegrass Series during his $400,000-plus sophomore season and was runner-up in the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championship and Stanley Dancer Memorial.
Earlier on the card, Pepsi North America Cup eligible Easy Again debuted a winner for the father-son team of driver Montrell Teague and trainer George Teague Jr. in his $15,000 conditioning assignment for three and four-year-old non-winners of five or $50,000 lifetime.
Easy Again advanced to the lead from fourth after the :27.4 opening quarter and cruised through middle splits of :56 and 1:24.2 before widening his leading margin to five lengths by the wire in 1:52.1. The Ron Pierce-driven Ask Directions was second and Friday At Five, with George Napolitano Jr. aboard, finish third.
The 1-2 favourite paid $3 to win. The Dragon Again-Kuklapanandollie colt is owned by the Kovach Stables LLC, Theodore Gewertz, Robert Feldman, and George Teague JR Inc.
Easy Again, a PASS Championship runner-up to Sweet Lou last year, ranks ninth in Trot Magazine's Pepsi North America Spring Book and has been assessed at odds of 25-1.