The highest-priced claiming pacers at Harrah’s Philadelphia were featured during the Sunday afternoon card, with three $12,000 for tag-bearing horses handicapped within their respective races by claiming price.

Stacey Currie, an Ontarian who has based at Pocono and has done very well especially in the claiming ranks, was the owner and trainer of two of the three feature winners. Faster of the two Currie successes was the Bettors Delight gelding Hundie N, claimed by Currie out of his last start, which was victorious as was this one. Montrell Teague guided the winner of $268,210 to an easy 1:51.3 triumph on the engine. 

The other pupil of Currie spicing up the features was the Always A Virgin gelding Newbie, whom the trainer/owner haltered for $10,000 on July 12 and now has won three of his last four for bigger tags. The winner of $365,984 made two speed moves en route to a 1:52.3 win, with the margin of victory the same as his stablemate Hundie N – 4-3/4 lengths. Newbie was one of four card-topping victories for driver Simon Allard.

The other feature winner, and the fastest, was the Art Major gelding Major Bean, who used engine tactics to lower his mark to 1:51. The meet’s leading driver, Tim Tetrick, handled the winner of $158,196 for trainer Darren Taneyhill and owner Eric Prevost. (Interestingly, a horse was claimed out of each of these features, but none of the three were the winners.)

The American Harness Drivers Club for amateur horsepeople was out four divisions strong during the Sunday card, with Tony Beltrami winning the trot and the three winners in the paces being Nicole DiCostanzo, Jacob Stillwell, and Frank Tsipouras. This is the fourth straight week Tsipouras has won an AHDC race at Philly, and the crowd is finally catching on – after paying $27.60, $63.60, and $24.60 in his first three wins, Tsipouras’s horse was backed heavily and paid $4.20 to win.

With many claimers, including the best brand, now racing on Sundays, and each of the AHDC series carrying an optional claiming tag, you could buy a horse out of eleven of Sunday’s fourteen races. The claiming box saw increased usage, as nine horses changed hands for $147,450.

Two-year-old fillies will be getting their final Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series action for earning points towards making their Championships during the coming week at Harrah’s Philadelphia. The trotters will be featured on Thursday, the pacers this coming Sunday, the latter date a week before Harrah’s will host the $1 million Pennsylvania Sire Stakes Championships for all four divisions of two-year-olds on Sunday, Sept. 4, the day before Labor Day. 

(PHHA / Harrah's Philadelphia)