Chester, PA – Over the racing surface at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Friday afternoon (Oct. 23), female pacers were the feature attraction. But throughout the day, there was also excitement and “jockeying for position” in the competition for most seasonal wins on both the driver and trainer sides.
Only Tim Tetrick and George Napolitano Jr. have won the driving dashwinning title at Philly for the last nineteen years, after the first year of 2006, when Cat Manzi was crowned. Tetrick built up a big lead at this year’s meet as he goes for his sixth straight championship, but he has been largely absent from the local scene the last couple of months during the epicenter of the stakes season. His lead was at 113-109 at the start of the day over Simon Allard, in prime sulky form (.346 UDR at the meet), but then Allard checked home first four times on Friday and is thus tied for the lead with two months to go. (Napolitano would also click for a four-bagger on the day.)
The trainers’ race has been even tighter: after a contentious Thursday, the day opened with Joe Bongiorno and Scott Di Domenico with 40 victories, and Dean Eckley with 38. Then Eckley, a claiming specialist, won three of the first five races to leapfrog to the top. But the day was not over, and a Bongiorno trainee was victorious late to tie Bongiorno and Eckley at 41 Philly wins. (And it would have been a three-way tie if the Di Domenico horse in the last race hadn’t had to settle for second, beaten a neck!)
The featured races for developing distaff sidewheelers were topped by a $13,500 pace which saw Maggie Q N raise her local record to 3-2-1-0 with a 1:52.4 victory on the engine, coming home in :28 to beat pocketsitting Hobby Gone Crazy by a half a length. The daughter of Captain Crunch, trained by Jenny Melander for Jose Cervantes and Friendship Stables LLC, was driven by Johnathan Ahle, who himself had three victories on a day when multiple wins were plentiful.
The $12,000 co-feature was pari-mutuel chaos, with the top three horses in the betting in the seven-horse field missing hitting the Superfecta (necessitating both a 5-3-ALL Trifecta and a Super carryover). The Father Nuno sophomore filly Pinching Pennies, away 56 days but adding Lasix, overcame a two-move adventure to win in a lifetime best 1:53.4 while returning $44.00 to win. George Napolitano Jr. drove for Team Cancelliere, owner John and trainer-brother Tom.
Worth noting is a 1:52.2 maiden win by the royally-bred (Bulldog Hanover – Economy Terror) freshman pacing colt Easygoing, who made every pole a winning one with a 9½ length decision for driver Simon Allard, trainer Hunter Oakes (two conditioning wins), and owners Howard Taylor and Chuck Pompey (who each had a horse they own solely also get to Victory Lane).
Racing at Philly resumes Sunday at 12:40; next week’s Thursday card at 12:25, featuring the start of the Liberty Bell stakes series, will be followed on Friday at a special post of 2 p.m. on the first of the two-day Breeders Cup Thoroughbred races. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.