Aaron Merriman and George Napolitano Jr. are still even in the North American dash chase after the racing on Wednesday (Dec. 2).

Napolitano took two races at Harrah’s Philadelphia, on a day where only five favorites won 14 races, 36 percent vs. their normal 45 percent. Napolitano was only favored three times, and his two winners came from chalk, both from the barn of Gilberto Garcia-Herrera, who now has a 139-129 lead in victories over the late-charging Ron Burke, who won the last three titles at Philadelphia and five of the last six. (By the way, the trainer third there has 38 sores, such is the dominance of those two.)

Merriman also won two races, both at Northfield, where he only got five drives in because of travel.

So now they are both tied at 807 wins in 2015.

Merriman had a good day at The Meadows, but the only time he crossed the wire first, with an 8-1 shot, his horse went inside the pylons and was placed back to third. In his 11 drives he officially had two seconds, five thirds, and ten checks, but no visits to Victory Lane.

One “problem” Merriman had at The Meadows, ironically, is that 10 of his 11 drives went off at 9-1 or less — usually, about 40 percent of the horses he drives at Northfield are favored, but he is frequently at higher odds in PA. “Ironically” is used because Wednesday The Meadows had four bombers who paid $50 or more, including the race where Merriman was disqualified. There were two races where the second-longest shot combined with the longest shot for a 1-2 finish in that order — including Merriman’s only 10-1-plus drive, where he was second with a 52-1 shot behind a 42-1 shot.

Meanwhile, quietly rumbling on the far outskirts of Cleveland is two-time North American defending dash win champ Ron Wrenn Jr., who won six times at Northfield Wednesday night, five of them were favorites.

Wrenn has now had 31 victories in his last eight cards at Northfield, but because he has been confining his duty to there, he has fallen off the pace of the top two a bit, with “only” 732 wins this year.

If we see Wrenn start to go out of town, we’ll note it. Remember, he had more than 100 victories in December 2014 to grab the title in the last strides, but being 75 wins behind on Dec. 2 seems too large a deficit to make up.

Napolitano is at Harrah’s Philadelphia Thursday afternoon, while both The Meadows and Northfield are dark.