Chester, PA – Maggie Q N came to Harrah’s Philadelphia on Friday (Oct. 9) afternoon and certainly earned her 1:53 victory in the $13,500 featured pace for distaff pacers.
The victorious daughter of Captain Crunch, trained by Jenny Melander for Jose Cervantes and Friendship Stables LLC, did not see much friendship extended to her in the mile, as she was four-wide most of the front turn, getting to two-wide at the :27.3 quarter and finally making the front nearing the wire the first time. The horse who surrendered the lead, Aardies A Wash, came back out to try to retake, but the Kiwi import wanted none of that, and the pair’s drivers had an exchange of sulky philosophy much of the way to the :56.3 half.
Maggie Q N won that battle of the front end just past the 1:24 three-quarters, but Dominican Sunshine emerged from the pocket to challenge, and Luckylady Hanover swung three-wide to enter the fray. But Johnathan Ahle coaxed more out of Maggie O N, and she won by a length over Dominican Sunshine, who took second ahead of Luckylady Hanover.
The $12,000 subfeature for the developing pacing mares saw the Papi Ron Hanover sophomore filly Rocknroll Caroline come uncovered from midpack at the half, yet she still had the strength to draw off to a 2¾ length victory in 1:53.2, her own back half in :55.4. Troy Beyer did the driving for trainer Juan Cano and Hot Lead Farm.
Car Keys certainly has found the key to winning at Philly, posting her fifth straight start over the southeast Pennsylvania oval with a 1:52.3 victory in the $13,000 top class for fast-class distaff pacers.
Patrick Ryder got the three-year-old daughter of Always B Miki out to an immediate lead, then yielded to Post Painter N, who went on to put up splits of :27.1, : 57.2, and 1:25. With that breather in quarter two, Post Painter N still had plenty of fight in her, but Car Keys dipped to the inside and paced her own last split in :27.2 to defeat the pacesetter by a half length.
Overall, Car Keys has won four of her last five races. Patrick’s father Chris trains the speedy filly, who is owned by Margaret Dey and Matthew Stolte.
Troy Beyer checked home first four times on the day; Johnathan Ahle and Simon Allard had two winning drives. Both of trainer Juan Cano’s winners were handled by Beyer; Jenny Melander also visited the winners circle twice.
The racing week at Philly closes on Sunday with a 12:40 card, with a featured quartet of pacing events for males split evenly between developing horses and established fast-class performers. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.