Four-year-old mare Spree pulled off a 28-1 upset in Wednesday's featured trot at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
The Harrah’s Philadelphia condition sheet had horses who are “non-winners of five races” set to be the feature performers for the Wednesday afternoon program. The trotters gathered a full field, and raced for $14,400; neither the male nor female pace had enough entrants to fill a field, so they were handicapped to the outside posts and raced against “non-winners of three” horses in $12,600 contests.
In the trot, the Muscle Massive mare Spree took advantage of an opportunistic drive by Todd McCarthy while reducing her mark to 1:56.2. Coming around the final turn three-wide and looking like she might have to tip four-deep – not a usual route to victory at Philly – Spree and McCarthy got a literal break as pocket-sitter Red Redemption went off stride, allowing the pair to duck down to the inside to edge Vinny De Vie by a neck. A 28-1 proposition, Spree triumphed for trainer Trish Adams and owner Dante Scattolini.
In both of the paces, the “non-winners of five entrants” handicapped outside were able to overcome their outer starting slots for victories. In the division for males, Mikibytheseaside and Number One Hit were the ones assigned outside -- both went off at 6-5, and in the end, it was the Always B Miki sophomore gelding Mikibytheseaside, the slight favourite, who visited Victory Lane. Driver Yannick Gingras sent the winner right to the top, put Number One Hit in behind him, then kept him at bay by 2-1/2 lengths in 1:52.4. Ron Burke trains the winner of $101,162 for Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Joseph Critelli and Bill Switala.
On the distaff side, Capsaicinn, the race favourite, quickly gained control for driver Marcus Miller, then lowered her mark a tick to 1:52.4, staying ahead of pocket-sitter Briar by 2-3/4 lengths. John Butenschoen conditions the Captaintreacherous sophomore for Emerald Highland Farm.
Thursday’s card at Philly is headed by a $15,300 “non-winners of eight races” trot, with Big Nudge started at 8-5 on the morning line from the rail. Program pages for the 12:25 p.m. first race post card are available on the PHHA website.
(With files from PHHA/Harrah’s Philadelphia)