Odds-on favourite Car Keys was on cruise control in the featured $19,178 conditioned pace for fillies and mares at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Friday afternoon, Aug. 28, rating the pace then sprinting home to be an easy winner in 1:52.3.
Driver Patrick Ryder got the recent Grand Circuit stakes-placed sophomore filly Car Keys around second choice Daisy Diana N (George Napolitano Jr.) while paying only a :27.3 price, then got a big breather to the half in :57.3. From there, Ryder just put the pedal to the metal and Car Keys accelerated, getting to the three-quarters in 1:25.3 and then throwing a :27 quarter at her older foes coming home. The Kiwi in the pocket kept the winner honest and was beaten only three parts of a length, with Anna Loves Bananas (Simon Allard) behind her Petter Engblom stablemate in third.
Ryder's father Chris trains the victorious Always B Miki-Road Bet filly, who had Sangria Summer and Darlins Angel as the winners of her two previous starts in stakes action, for New Jersey owners Margaret Dey and Matthew Stolte. Car Keys, a four-time career winner in 21 starts, is approaching a quarter of a million dollars in lifetime earnings.
Sunday’s 12:40 p.m. card at Philly will feature the fourth and final preliminary leg of Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series for three-year-old trotting males, with these wide-open groups looking to clinch places in their rich championship races over the Labour Day Monday weekend (the sophomore Sire Stakes horses will race at Philly for a combined $1.4 million USD within their four groupings by gait and sex on Sunday, Sept. 6).
(With files from PHHA/Harrah’s Philadelphia)