The Capt Midnight-Heavenly Bet gelding Heaven Needs Me did something in the $18,493 featured conditioned pace on Sunday, April 26 that few other winners at Harrah’s Philadelphia do – he came from dead last at three-quarters to win.
They were five-wide going towards the first turn, with favoured Th Colby (Tim Tetrick) having to settle into a five-hole tuck as second choice Lazarus Star (Mark Herschberger) finally emerged with the lead at the quarter in :28.1. The outer flow was clogged down the back following a :56.4 half and Th Colby stayed in, but Simon Allard did tip Heaven Needs Me out, and the four-year-old unleashed a three-wide move past the 1:24.2 three-quarters. Heaven Needs Me gobbled up ground with identical back quarters of :27 to defeat 46-1 shot Son Of Era (Patrick Ryder) by a neck in 1:52.4. Th Colby had to settle for third after not clearing until angling out behind the winner in upper stretch.
Heaven Needs Me is another of the well-performing team of trainer-owner Chelsey Faurot. He is now five-for-22 lifetime. The win price was $17.20.
In a sub-featured $17,808 fast-class conditioned pace, the Betterthancheddar-Lil Beach gelding Iknowbetter ($5) shipped in from Yonkers, went right to the lead and set fractions of :27.1, :56.2 and 1:23.4. The Gotham invader had a pesky challenger in first-over Build The Wall (Mark Herschberger) much of the last half, and both were game, but Iknowbetter emerged the winner by a half-length in 1:51.2 for the ownership of Jennifer Bongiorno Stable LLC, Blair Corbeil, and Mike Mcallister. Solid Character (Simon Allard) was third. The winning five-year-old is now 13-for-37 in his career.
Meanwhile, Iknowbetter’s trainer-driver Joe Bongiorno continued to shine on the 14-race card. He drove three horses from his stable to victory Sunday, and had a fourth member of his shedrow finishing third – the only horse in 16 starts at the meet not to finish in the exactor for the Bongiorno barn. He had an .867 UTR heading into Friday (10-7-3-0), managed to lower that to .852 with a first and a second from his only two entrants, and on Sunday the 4-3-0-1 tally again reduced his UTR to .847. In the win column, Bongiorno is 11-for-16 on the meet and 48-for-209 across all tracks.
Good Friday ($3.20), who was victorious when he made his sophomore qualifying return on Good Friday (April 3), reduced his mark to 1:53.4 in winning the $16,438 conditioned sub-feature for the up-and-coming pacers. The gelded son of Tall Dark Stranger-Virgin Mary had not previously raced on the front end, but Philly’s top driver Tim Tetrick saw his best chances from the outside post eight were from up top, so he used the horse to clear past the quarter and set the pace. Good Friday then withstood rail shooter Ghetto Loupastar (Joe Bongiorno) by a half-length, with pocket-sitting Strangeronthebeach (Mike Cole) only another neck away from taking it all. Good Friday won for trainer Tom Shay and owners Howard Taylor and Teena Freibert.
Aside from the Bongiorno heroics, meet leader Tim Tetrick drove three winners, with Simon Allard and George Napolitano Jr. each getting two sulky successes.
There will be no live racing this coming Thursday as Philly will present live programs on Friday at 12:25 p.m., Kentucky Derby Saturday at 12:40 p.m. and Sunday at 12:40 p.m. this coming week. The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series horses get together for the first time in 2026 on the Friday program, with three-year-old pacing fillies featured. That card will be drawn on Monday, with the following two cards put together in each of the following two days.
(With files from PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia)