Chester, PA – Winter weather came to southeast Pennsylvania in full effect on Friday afternoon (Nov. 13) at Harrah’s Philadelphia, with a “good” oval and temperatures never reaching 10 degrees above freezing. Nonetheless, the racing was quite competitive, with nine of the 13 races decided by a length or less.
Even the heavily-favored Resolve To Win, now a 14-time winner’s circle visitor this season, had a difficult time in the $16,000 fast-class trot while succeeding in 1:53.3. George Napolitano Jr. kept the Resolve gelding in third along the inside through fractions of :28, :56.3, and 1:24.3 set by Outside The Fire, then followed pocket-sitter Kierkegaard K outside on the far turn. Resolve To Win then went a path wider in the straight and defeated Kierkegaard K by a neck, with the pacesetter only another half-length behind.
Resolved To Win has now won three of his last four, five of his last seven, and seven of his last 10 to bring his earnings to $224,707 this campaign and $567,553 lifetime.
The $14,000 headliner for the developing class of trotters, on the other hand, proved an easy opportunity for the Tactical Landing sophomore colt Trillion Times, winning by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:55.3. Trillion Times, despite losing his last start a level lower, here made two speed moves to the lead and darted away in the last quarter for his third win in his last five trips to the gate. George Napolitano Jr. was again in the sulky, here for trainer Petter Engblom and owners Engblom Farm and Kristen Bartlett.
“George Nap” then made it a sweep of the features by guiding Bricco to a 1:57 win by the barest of margins in the $13,500 developing class sub-feature. Bricco, a 3-year-old Gimpanzee gelding who also has a 3-for-5 recent record, sat the pocket then utilized the passing lane to defeat track-record-holder Secret Agent Man, who hadn’t shown a flat line since April 26 until his latest qualifier, but here came from last and just missed getting the big money. Bricco is trained by Andrew Harris for Punisher 11 Stable.
Napolitano Jr. won four times on the day to lead the drivers; Tim Tetrick won three times and for the second straight day doubled his lead over Simon Allard (who won once Friday) in the meet stats, the lead going from one to two on Thursday and two to four on Friday, 127-123. Harris was the only doubling conditioner on the day; Dean Eckley sent out a winner to break the deadlock with Scott DiDomenico in the trainers win column, which now reads 47-46.
The mercury would be doing well to reach 50 degrees when Philly hosts its next card on Sunday at 12:40 p.m. (EST), with developing male pacers in the headline attractions. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.