Bella Bellini became the fastest three-year-old trotter in North America so far in 2021 with a 1:53.1 win on Thursday afternoon (April 29) at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
Dexter Dunn kept the Bar Hopping-Bella Dolce filly in the pocket behind Worthy Of Honor early through fractions of :28.1 and :57.4, then angled her out to challenge the leader nearing the 1:25.3 three-quarters. Bella Bellini cleared to the lead before reaching the homestretch and tacked on her own second successive :27.3 quarter to win comfortably by 5-3/4 lengths over the pacesetter for trainer Nifty Norman and owner David McDuffee.
Bella Bellini's 1:53.1 mile broke a seasonal standard for sophomores which had lasted all of 22 minutes, set in the previous race at Philly, when Mister Boinga caught pacesetting favourite Shinkansen to lower his record to 1:53.4. Tim Tetrick handled the Bar Hopping gelding, now 4-of-9 lifetime, for trainer Jill Roland and owner Bernard O’Brien in the richest race of the day, which went for $12,800.
A pair of $11,600 contests for fast-class older performers were also featured on the program. In one, the four-year-old Muscles Yankee mare No Mas Drama remained undefeated through three seasonal starts, with the new Michael Russo trainee leaving no doubt she was the best in a 1:53.2 lifetime mark. Ginnis Stables LLC owns the winner of $258,305.
In the other sub-feature, Only For Justice and Moveoutofmyway K exchanged the lead before Only For Justice grabbed it for good on the backstretch and held off a second challenge from Moveoutofmyway K to win by a length at the end of a 1:55.2 mile. Only For Justice, making his second start after coming from Woodbine Mohawk Park, is trained by Andrew Harris for Ecurie Gaetan Bono Inc.
Harrah’s Philadelphia has three cards coming up this racing week: the usual Friday (April 30) card at 12:25 p.m., and then a special live program on Kentucky Derby Day (Saturday, May 1) with the same post time as Sunday’s (May 2) racing, 12:40 p.m. Program pages for these cards will be available at https://www.phha.org/harrahspps.html.
(PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia)