from harness publicists across North America

Thursday’s (July 30) edition of Racing Roundup features results stories from Harrah’s Philadelphia and Saratoga Casino and Raceway.

It Really Matters captures Philadelphia feature

Chester, PA — A field of eight upper-conditioned level trotters headlined the card on a stormy Thursday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, going for a purse of $18,000.

The race favorite was Bradley Grant’s It Really Matters (Brett Miller). The 4-year-old son of Explosive Matter was coming off a tough trip, finishing off the board at Pocono in his most recent. He wasted little time getting into the action Thursday.

Starting from post four, the Larry Remmen trainee stormed past second favorite Pocket Trip (Corey Callahan) just after the opening quarter. He never looked back from that point, going on to win by a length, wrapping up the mile in 1:54.1. Pocket Trip was second, while Charles VII (Marcus Miller) closed from well off the trot to be third.

It was the 11th career win out of 53 starts for It Really Matters, who paid $4.20 to win.

— Mike Bozich

Saratoga Casino and Raceway
Crystal Sphere secured a lifetime best victory on a big evening for driver Frank Coppola Jr. on Thursday at Saratoga Casino and Raceway. The Margaret Spagnola-trained Crystal Sphere (Conway Hall) trotted past his rivals to set a new lifetime mark of 1:58.3 in the evening’s $10,500 co-feature for New York sired trotters. The 4-year-old won for the third time this season for Coppola who piloted five winners on the 11-race program. The race’s favorite JS Trotting Bob (Jim Devaux) took the lead around the final turn but Crystal Sphere had little difficulty trotting past to secure the victory. JS Trotting Bob was a clear second while Azucar (Bruce Aldrich Jr.) came on to finish third. The veteran Coppola is having his best season in the sulky in several years and currently sits third in the local driver standings. Live racing continues at the Spa on Friday night with a first post time set for 7:05 p.m.