Chester PA — Three horses won off cover, all second-over trips, during the Wednesday (Nov. 27) afternoon card at Harrah’s Philadelphia. Two of them were the feature races winners, and the other came in the last race as the only non-favorite of the day to emerge victorious.

Muscle M Up, a winner a level higher when last at Philadelphia, reunited with the local surroundings successfully in taking the $18,000 feature level trot.

The son of Muscle Hill tucked fourth early, then followed the first-over horse at the half under the guidance of Andrew McCarthy. The winner went three-wide at the three-quarters and proved much the best in the stretch, winning by 3-1/4 lengths over Mississippi Storm in 1:54.1 to boost his seasonal earnings over six figures for trainer Ake Svanstedt and Knutsson Trotting Inc.

In a $17,000 co-featured trot, the developing Chapter Seven sophomore colt Hatikvah also found the overland trip with cover to be the right path to victory, though he had to work pretty hard to get by a pulling pocket-sitter IMF to win by a half-length in 1:56.1.

Mattias Melander drove the promising youngster for trainer Marcus Melander and the ownership of Richard Gutnick, Thomas Pontone, Joseph Lozito Jr., and Ted Gewertz.

Favorite players had things their way almost the entire card, with the first 13 races going to the public choice, the longest such streak in recent memory. But Kinda Lucky Lindy could not complete the favorite sweep. He went first-over against pacesetter Abbie’s Celticlass, yet could do no better than third as Perfect Stick and driver Marcus Miller swung wide off cover and got by Abbie’s Celticlass by 2-3/4 lengths, with Kinda Lucky Lindy settling for third in the 1:55.3 mile.

The winner, a Big Stick Lindy mare who paid $18.40, is trained by Anette Lorentzon for Yinson Quezada.

Harrah’s Philadelphia will be dark for live racing on Thanksgiving; live racing will resume Friday at 12:25 p.m.