Simon Allard solidified his second-place ranking (behind Tim Tetrick) in the Harrah’s Philadelphia driver standings, posting five victories on the Kentucky Derby Saturday (May 2) afternoon card at the southeast Pennsylvania oval, including both of the features.
Allard’s big day was not totally unexpected as he was the morning line favourite in nine of the card’s fourteen races, but the $16,216 featured pacers for developing horses went to an early line chalk, Southwind Galvestn – who returned $16.60 to win. The successful altered sophomore son of Always B Miki had been showing solid form, with two seconds and a third in Weiss Series prelims, but the crowd went heavily for Louaville, a stakes horse in 2025 making his yearly debut and perhaps overbet a bit because of the location of a certain Thoroughbred race Saturday. But Southwind Galvestn got a soft half, then sprinted home in :55.4 - :27.4 to ward off a hard challenge from the first-over favorite by a length while taking a new record of 1:53.3. Jamie Sullivan won in her second start training the horse for owner Frank Chick.
The Tall Dark Stranger mare Turn Up The Music won for the third straight time in a $13,514 fast-class distaff handicap co-feature, heading right down the road but having to be good to hold off first-up Prideful by a length in 1:53 for Allard and Morrison Racing Stables. Turn Up The Music is a member of the incandescent barn of Joe Bongiorno, which finally finished off the board for the first time in seventeen 2026 local starts (in Friday’s PaSS against Miss Jum Jammer and Loua Dipa), but got back on the winning track with “Music,” now sporting an 18-12-4-1 tally to generate an unreal UTR of .807.
Scott Zeron drove two winners to give sons of Quebec half of the day’s card when added to Allard’s five; Johnathan Ahle also guided two winners. Noel Daley had a pair of horses from his barn win to top his segment.
The compact three-cards-in-three-days Harrah’s racing schedule concludes on Sunday at 12:40 p.m., with pacers both seasoned and developing providing challenging races to handicap and bet.
(PHHA / Harrah's Philadelphia)