Chester, PA — “Team Orange Crush” — Andy, Julie and Tyler Miller — swept the two trotting features at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon (July 29), with the $15,300 top purse event seeing the red-hot Angel Nation deliver a powerful 1:52.1 victory.

Driver Tyler Miller put up fractions of :27, :55.4 and 1:24 with the 4-year-old Archangel gelding. Favored Eva Dairpet FR advanced uncovered and the talented Hayek was well-placed in the pocket, but Angel Nation’s sheer speed was more than enough to hold that pair off while coming within a fifth of a second of the divisional track record, set by Scirocco Rob in 20019. Julie Miller trains Angel Nation, who has now won four consecutive races, for the Legendary Standardbred Farm and Ted MacDonnell.

In the $13,000 fast-class trot, Big Oil never looked back through fractions of :27.1, :56.1, and 1:24.1 en route to a 1:53 victory, 1-1/4 lengths to the good of pocketsitter The Veteran. Andy Miller drove for the partnership of Jason, Douglas and Ronald Allen.

Three events were held for 2-year-old trotting fillies, many of whom were preparing for next week’s Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series racing. The winners were Design Fashion (Donato Hanover, 1:57.3), Money Matters (Explosive Matter, 1:58), and Born On Third Base (Donato Hanover, 1:58.3). But the 2-year-old trotter who may have had the most fascination was the debuting Pretender, who trotted his own last half in :57.2 to win in 1:58 for driver Jimmy Takter, trainer Nancy Takter, and the ownership of John Fielding, Caviart Farms, Joyce McClelland and Herb Liverman. This colt is by Muscle Hill out of the double millionaire Maven, and he looked like he wants to live up to that pedigree.

Program pages for Friday’s (July 30) card are available at the PHHA website. Post time is 12:25 p.m.