Chester, PA — Big Oil may be finding himself in top free-for-all company soon after he posted a 1:52.3 victory over odds-on favorite Scirocco Rob in Thursday afternoon’s (June 24) $16,200 featured trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia.

Andy Miller got the 4-year-old son of Father Patrick to the lead nearing the first turn, but then contently yielded the engine near the :26.4 opener to the charging Scirocco Rob and drafted through middle splits of :55.1 and 1:23.4. Scirocco Rob still had the lead turning for home, but Miller had two handfuls of horse when he tipped Big Oil wide, going on to win by three-quarters of a length.

A world champion at 2 when he posted the fastest trotting dead heat ever with Real Cool Sam at Lexington, Big Oil held his own with stakes company at 2 and 3, but he may never have been better as he has won three of his last four, boosting his earnings to $229,706. Andy’s wife, Julie, trains the sharp trotter for Jason, Douglas and Ronald Allen.

In the $14,400 co-featured trot, Baldaquin showed his usual gameness to circle off cover and then hold off a late charge from Focus Pocus by a neck in taking a new mark of 1:55.2 under the handling of Marcus Miller. The 5-year-old Explosive Matter gelding, whom Louise Pepin trains for Steven Bryden, has won five of his 12 races to date.

The first pari-mutuel races of the season for 2-year-old trotters took place on the Thursday program, as well.

Among the males, David Miller guided the Father Patrick-With Sugar colt Torrone to the lead, got to the half in 1:00.4, then scurried home in :28.1 to hold off a determined first-over bid by favored Parola Hanover by a neck in 1:59. The Joe Holloway trainee is owned by Brittany Farms LLC, Val D’Or Farms and Ted Gewertz.

In the race for fillies, names associated with top-level pacing females — driver Tim Tetrick, trainer Jim King Jr. and owner Jo Ann Looney-King — were the force behind the trotting winner, the Bar Hopping-Phabaj Hanover filly Whiskey Girl, who held off a closing Gumdrop Hanover in 2:00.