Big Oil may be finding himself in top free-for-all company soon after he posted a 1:52.3 victory over odds-on favourite Scirocco Rob in Thursday afternoon's (June 24) $16,200 featured trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
Andy Miller got the four-year-old son of Father Patrick to the lead nearing the first turn, but then contently yielded the engine near the :26.4 opener to the charging Scirocco Rob and drafted through middle splits of :55.1 and 1:23.4. Scirocco Rob still had the lead turning for home, but Miller had two handfuls of horse when he tipped Big Oil wide, going on to win by three-quarters of a length.
A world champion at two when he posted the fastest trotting dead heat ever with Real Cool Sam at Lexington, Big Oil held his own with stakes company at two and three, but he may never have been better as he has won three of his last four, boosting his earnings to $229,706. Andy’s wife, Julie, trains the sharp trotter for Jason, Douglas and Ronald Allen.
In the $14,400 co-featured trot, Baldaquin showed his usual gameness to circle off cover and then hold off a late charge from Focus Pocus by a neck in taking a new mark of 1:55.2 under the handling of Marcus Miller. The five-year-old Explosive Matter gelding, whom Louise Pepin trains for Steven Bryden, has won five of his 12 races to date.
The first pari-mutuel races of the season for two-year-old trotters took place on the Thursday program, as well.
Among the males, David Miller guided the Father Patrick-With Sugar colt Torrone to the lead, got to the half in 1:00.4, then scurried home in :28.1 to hold off a determined first-over bid by favoured Parola Hanover by a neck in 1:59. The Joe Holloway trainee is owned by Brittany Farms LLC, Val D’Or Farms and Ted Gewertz.
In the race for fillies, names associated with top-level pacing females — driver Tim Tetrick, trainer Jim King Jr. and owner Jo Ann Looney-King — were the force behind the trotting winner, the Bar Hopping-Phabaj Hanover filly Whiskey Girl, who held off a closing Gumdrop Hanover in 2:00.
(PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia)