The cream of the Pennsylvania-sired two-year-olds, many of whom have established North American credentials already, will be coming en masse to Harrah’s Philadelphia this Sunday afternoon (Sept. 8), as the southeast Pennsylvania track will host four $252,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships.
In addition to the championships, $50,000 consolations for each of the four groups will also be contested.
The freshman with the biggest reputation is the Muscle Hill – Cooler Schooner gelding Real Cool Sam, who is the highest-ranked two-year-old in the North American Top 10 polls. Real Cool Sam is undefeated after seven career starts, including three PASS outings. He has already tied two world records for age, sex, and gait – 1:53.1 for a mile track in winning the Peter Haughton final on Hambletonian Day, and 1:54.4 for a five-eighths-mile track in his next start, which was a PASS stop at the Meadows.
The stakes and local track records could be in jeopardy, as the weather is expected to cooperate on Sunday (Real Cool Sam might be able to better his dam’s 1:54.2 Philly mile that she recorded as a juvenile, which is the fastest trotting mile by a two-year-old ever at Philly). Real Cool Sam will start from Post 3 in Sunday’s ninth race for driver David Miller, trainer Jim Campbell, and the ownership of Fashion Farms LLC.
The Pennsylvania filly counterpart of Real Cool Sam has been Sister Sledge, a daughter of Father Patrick – Behindclosedoors that will start from Post 2 in the eleventh race for driver Yannick Gingras and trainer Ron Burke. She races for the ownership of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Jason Melillo, and J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby. Sister Sledge is undefeated after six career races, and she was the only performer in the PASS’s four juvenile categories to post a win in each of the four sire stakes prelims.
Sister Sledge is also loaded with speed. Her 1:53.4 clocking over Pocono was a full second faster than any clocking from a two-year-old PASS male has been clocked over a five-eighths mile track, which includes Harrah’s Philadelphia.
The speed concept is not limited to the trotting side of the PASS, either, as the filly Sweet Ace and the colt Papi Rob Hanover share the 2019 standard for any baby on a five-eighths-mile track (1:50.4).
Papi Hanover, a son of Somebeachsomewhere – Panera Hanover, in fact, needed his 1:50.4 clocking in the final sire stakes preliminary for the win to get enough points just to advance to the championship. The racing fortunes again smiled on Papi Hanover when he drew Post 1 for his championship for driver David Miller, trainer Brett Pelling, and owner David McDuffie. Starting just to Papi Hanover’s right will be the preliminary pointleader, Adriano Hanover, who was a three-time winner in the prelims.
The Sweet Lou – One Ace Too Many filly Sweet Ace posted her 1:50.4 clocking not in a sire stakes contest, but in a division of the Arden Downs on Adios Day. In the sire stakes she has recorded a first, a second, a third, and a fourth, and she’ll have to be at her best in from Post 6 for driver Dexter Dunn. She is trained by Ron Burke for the Burke Racing Stable, Jason Melillo, J&T Silva, Purnel & Libby, and Lawrence Karr.
Making the task harder for Sweet Ace – and indeed any filly in the field – is the fact that the two leading pointwinners, Lyons Sentinel and Rocknificent, will begin from Post 1 and 2, respectively. Lyons Sentinel has a 6-3-3-0 lifetime record, with the three losses by a nose, a head, and a neck, and she holds a two-one edge on Rocknificent in August head-to-head matchups.
Over $1.3 million in purse money will be distributed during the Sunday extravaganza at Harrah’s Philadelphia. First post is set for 12:40 p.m.
(With files from PHHA / Harrah’s Philadelphia)