Chester, PA — It was an unusual Friday (Oct. 21) afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, as most of the feature races, including the two divisions of the $93,200 Razzle Hanover, the John Simpson Sr. Memorial stake for two-year-old pacing fillies, were taken by horses coming from well off the pace on the normally speed-favoring track.

The Always B Miki–Emily Car filly Extreme Z Tam (Pat Lachance) was reserved along the inside in the first Razzle Hanover/Simpson division by trainer/driver Pat Lachance, then came closing strongly up the open stretch, pacing her own last quarter in :27.1 to catch the pacesetter favorite Ginger Tree Coco (David Miller) by a neck. The winning time of 1:53.3 was perforce a lifetime race mark since it was the first purse victory for Extreme Z Tam, who is owned by Lachance, M & M Harness Racing LLC, and Royal Flush Stable LLC.

Also winning a purse race for the first time in her career was the Sweet Lou–Luvthebeachlife miss IIluvloucy (Corey Callahan), who was still last at headstretch, but who made up four lengths in the stretch to catch the first-over favorite Falana Hanover (Victor Kirby) by half a length in 1:54.1. Travis Alexander conditions the filly for M Spacc Stables, Fiddler’s Creek Stables LLC, D’Elegance Stable IX and T L P Stable.

The closer theme also held up in the $22,500 handicap pace for fast-class distaffs, as the McArdle mare McMarkle Sparkle (Troy Beyer), winner of three of her last four at the difficult-to-rally Yonkers venue, sat last to the stretch call after being assigned the outermost slot. Beyer got the tough mare rolling late and came on to catch the pacesetting West Beach (Marcus Miller) by a length in 1:52.3. McMarkle Sparkle now has 10 victories and $221,390 on the year and $549,307 lifetime for trainer Scott Di Domenico and owner Laura Baker.

The one feature winner who took his event on the engine is the one you could have predicted beforehand –the well-named early flyer Ruthless Hanover.  George Napolitano Jr. had the gelded son of Somebeachsomewhere buzzing away quickly, but met early resistance from Ilikemebettor A (Marcus Miller), impressive in his first two Stateside starts, and needed to unleash a :25.4 opener to clear. Nobody wanted to challenge “Ruthless” in quarter two, thus the half in :54.4, and the pacesetter tacked on a further fractional of 1:21.4 before holding off the late surge of Ilikemebettor A by a half-length in 1:49. Ruthless Hanover has now won four in a row for Team Cancelliere, trainer Tom and owner John.

After a day away from the top of the standings at Philly, Simon Allard joined George Napolitano Jr. with four wins on Friday – making it ten times in the last 11 local cards that Allard has been top or co-top driver. During the 11-card stretch, Allard has won 36 times.

The Simpson stakes continues on Sunday at Philly with two divisions of the $106.200 Davidia Hanover for two-year-old trotting fillies. Program pages are or will be available at https://www.phha.org/harrahspps.html.