Chester, Pa  – The American Ideal gelding Bakersfield went right to the top, then held off a sustained bud from favored JJ Flynn to win the $14,500 featured pace in 1:51 on Wednesday (July 24) afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

George Napolitano Jr., one of the premier front-end drivers in the game, got Bakersfield quickly to the top from post four, while JJ Flynn got away fourth from post six, as horses with inside positions defended spots behind the pacesetter. JJ Flynn came out at the half and grinded up to the leader, but Bakersfield proved to have too much in reserve and won by a half-length for trainer Gilbert Garcia-Owen and owner Gilbert Garcia-Herrera. The winner of two of his last three now has lifetime earnings of $398,916.

The feature race was also the Jackpot Hi-5 race, with a carryover of almost $49,000. Even though the second choice beat the heavy favorite and the three horses behind them were 35-1, 30-1, and 20-1, there still was no correct unique ticket in the Pick-5 pool, so there will be a carryover of $51,848.96 going into Thursday’s (July 25) card.

In a $14,000 co-featured pace, Captain Mulzac, a sophomore son of Captaintreacherous, scored his second straight victory, winning by four lengths in a lifetime best 1:51. Captain Mulzac, trained by Kevin McDermott for owner 3 Fools LLC, Francis Azur, Jim Winske, and Stephen Michaels, was unraced at two, but is six-for-eight as a sophomore, and his star is rising quickly.

Driving Captain Mulzac was Tim Tetrick, who posted 16 wins during the four cards of racing here last week, and today added five more victories to his meet-leading tally.