CHESTER PA – Over a track that has not been kind to closers lately, the $14,500 featured harness racing trot on Thursday afternoon at Harrah's Philadelphia narrowed down to a pair of stretch chargers, Rock Of Cashel and All Champy, with the latter getting up in the final strides by a neck in 1:53.3.
Rock Of Cashel (driver David Miller) was second-over and All Champy (Dexter Dunn) third-over behind first-up Casa Palmera, who went up to battle pacesetting Inner Peace after the last-named went fractions of :27.3 and :56.3. The front-end duel continued past the 1:24.4 three-quarters and through the turn, with Rock Of Cashel swinging wide and All Champy wider as they headed to the stretch.
Rock Of Cashel made the stretch lead, but the Explosive Matter gelding All Champy was a determined trotter, and he got the job done for the seventh time this season while boosting his yearly bankroll to $118,905. William Wyatt trains the winner for owners Howard and Joshua Kauffman.
In a $14,000 trotting co-feature, favored Yankees Beast made a break at the ¼, and pacesetting second choice Mystical Wynn lost his gait going around the far turn. The Cantab Hall sophomore filly Dawn Of Glory kept her composure, sitting in the pocket and inheriting the lead nearing headstretch, then holding off Fanatic by 1 3/4 lengths while equaling her speed badge of 1:57 as rain started to fall. Andy Miller was in the sulky for trainer/wife Julie and the ownership of Red Wall Stables LLC and Andy Miller Stable Inc.
The rain falling in this race, the seventh of the program, turned into a "monsoon," as track announcer Mike Bozich described it, with the eighth race field having to battle a 30 mile per hour stretch headwind and a heavy downpour. After that race, there was a weather delay, so that the racetrack could be reconditioned after the rapidly-moving storm passed through.
PHHA / Harrah's Philadelphia