The red-hot stable of Joe Bongiorno, who has the early lead in the trainers win race at Harrah’s Philadelphia, actually lowered his UTR by finishing 1-2 in the $16,438 pacing feature for distaffs on Friday, April 24 as the four-year-old Tall Dark Stranger mare Turn Up The Music won her second straight, with barnmate Hobby Gone Crazy up for second in the 1:52.3 mile.
Bongiorno was not driving at Philly on Friday, but he found two effective deputies, with Tim Tetrick, going for his sixth straight local crown, handling Turn Up The Music, and Simon Allard, winningest driver on the day with three tallies, behind Hobby Gone Crazy -- the only two he had entered on Friday. Turn Up The Music made every pole a winning one in a race with splits of :27.2, :56.4, and 1:24.2, holding off a determined bid by first-over Hobby Gone Crazy by three-quarters of a length for Morrison Racing Stables of Indiana, Pennsylvania. The Bongiorno barn had an amazing record of 10-7-3-0-0.867 entering the race; the “sweep” ran the trainer's record to 12-8-4-0, reducing the percentage figure to -.852.
Neils Diamond carried a basic price tag of $13,000 USD when she won her last start in 1:56.1; on Friday, she thundered home from last on the far turn to win the $15,753 fast-class pace for distaffs in a lifetime best of 1:51.2 for driver Allard, trainer Jeffrey Smith, and owner Joseph Jannuzzeli of Manalapan, New Jersey. The four-year-old daughter of In The Arsenal has won three of five starts since adding Lasix, but the local bettors did not think she would handle such a class jump – when she did, she returned $78 to win, the third $50+ horse in the last two cards.
Along with Allard’s triple, doubling drivers included Troy Beyer (a day after he posted $50+ win prices in consecutive races), Mark Herschberger and Tetrick.
The racing week concludes on Sunday with a 12:40 p.m. first race post, with featured pacing events for both up-and-coming horses and fast-class veterans. There will be a carryover into the fifth race Pick-5 pool.
Next week (April 30 – May 3), Harrah’s Philly will be dark for live racing on Thursday and then have live programs on Friday at 12:25 p.m. (with the 2026 debut of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series, for three-year-old pacing fillies), a Saturday 12:40 p.m. card on Kentucky Derby Day, and a Sunday program at 12:40 p.m.
(With files from PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia)