Chester, PA – On the way to increasing his lead in the Harrah’s Philadelphia drivers derby by winning four races Sunday (May 3), Tim Tetrick had a natural hat trick, the middle race of which was a 1:51.4 victory with the Papi Rob Hanover gelding TH Colby in the $13,500 featured pace for developing males.
Tetrick sat second with TH Colby as Lazarus Star took over before a :28 quarter and then got a breather to the half in :57.3. The winner stayed close to the leader as that one sped up to a 1:24.2 three-quarters, then moved from the two-hole to beat the pacesetter by 1-3/4 lengths. Ron Burke trains the 4-year-old for Burke Racing Stable LLC, Phil Collura, Lawrence Karr, and J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby.
Race 9, a $13,000 sidewheeling contest for experienced performers was won by Newsroom. The son of Always B Miki gained three lengths from racing third at the three quarters by stepping off a :27.3 kicker to catch pacesetting favorite Sugar Man by half a length; pocketsitter Jack’s Shadow N was just another neck back in third. Newsroom, owned by Lawrence Vukovic and William Daggett Jr., was driven by Art Stafford Jr. for trainer Stacy Johnson-Stafford, who has been winning at a 23% clip since getting her trainer’s license back in August.
One race later, the $11,000 co-feature for fast-class pacers went even faster, as the Sweet Lou gelding Solid Character stepped his last half in :54.4 on the lead to withstand increasingly-menacing pocketsitting favorite Major Hothooves N by a head in 1:50.4. Another Ron Burke trainee for the ubiquitous combine of Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Joe Bongiorno held the horse together to the wire for the tally.
As mentioned, Tim Tetrick paraded back to Victory Lane four times, twice behind Ron Burke horses; as also noted Joe Bongiorno drove a Burke winner once, ironic since that moved Burke closer to Bongiorno’s meet lead for training triumphs. George Napolitano Jr. drove two winners, while Andrew Harris trained the winners of the Early Double for his two-bagger.
Racing returns to Harrah’s Philly on “Trottin’ Thursday” (May 7) at 12:25 p.m., with the usual complement of tough diamondgaiters loaded up throughout the various classes. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.