Prairie Panther, who made his 2019 debut in the Great Northeast Open Series (GNOS) a successful one last week at Pocono, has been installed a 7-2 morning line favourite in a very competitive field of eight in a $30,000 GNOS event for fast-class pacers on Sunday (Aug. 11) at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
A 10-time winner already this year, the Royal Millennium gelding shows recent victories at Tioga, The Meadowlands and Pocono, where he came from far back to win in 1:50. Tyler Buter, with whom he took his 1:48.2 mark two starts ago, is listed to drive from post 1 for trainer Mike Deters, who co-owns with Laurie Poulin.
The Big Jim gelding Tiger Thompson N, the leader in this GNOS division’s standings despite finishing one-and-a-half lengths behind Prairie Panther last week at Pocono, returns to the track where he won in GNOS competition on May 12. Andrew McCarthy will provide a fresh pair of hands for Tiger Thompson N from post 6 for trainer Joshua Parker.
Donttellmeagain, late-season conqueror of McWicked during the latter's Horse of the Year campaign last fall, finished third from post 8 to Tiger Thompson N when that horse won in the GNOS at Harrah's Philadelphia and now returns to race from the same outside post. The red-hot team of driver Tim Tetrick and trainer Jim King Jr. are the braintrust behind Donttellmeagain, a Dragon Again gelding who will be making his first start in two-and-a-half months.
Others in the field, listed from innermost post position excluding the above three, are Our Max Phactor N (driver George Napolitano Jr.), Slick Tony (Anthony Morgan), Sicily (Victor Kirby), Mach N Cheese (Simon Allard), and Lyons Steel (George Brennan).
The horses earn points according to their order of finish, with the top pointwinners in the weekly-scheduled spring/summer competition eligible for their $100,000 GNOS Championship at one-and-a-quarter miles at Pocono on Monday, Sept. 9.
Sunday’s GNOS pace is race seven on Philly’s 14-race card, with first post set for 12:40 p.m.
(with files from PHHA/Philadelphia)