Nine-year-old Dougs Babe A clocks stunning 1:49.3

CHESTER PA – A deluge passed through southeastern Pennsylvania midcard on Thursday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, starting as the horses were on the track for race seven, and then necessitating a 40-minute gap to race eight as the track crew rereadied the track. The rains, however, occurred after the two feature races of the day, both for fast-class female pacers.

DOUGS BABE A REPLAY

The Western Terror mare Dougs Babe A lowered her lifetime mark at age nine in posting a 1:49.3 clocking in the $13,000 higher-level fast class event. Driver Bradley Chisholm took no prisoners with the winner of $685,724, rambling down the road with splits of :27.1, :55.2, and 1:22.1 while going more clear with every last-half step, eventually winning by 6½ lengths. Nifty Norman trains the sharp mare for owners Tom Vassiliou and Nicholas Tallarico.

The $11,000 distaff pacing co-feature, a handicap, also produced an impressive wire-to-wire winner in the Downbytheseaside mare Factory Girl, freezing the timer at :27, :55.1, and 1:23.1 before completing the mile two lengths ahead in 1:51. Tim Tetrick had the sulky seat for trainer Scott Di Domenico (more on those two later) and owner Angela Cornell.

There were two $12,000 contests for developing horses, both after the track condition had been changed to “sloppy.” Dominican Sunshine reduced her mark to 1:53.1, the Always B Miki sophomore pacing filly swinging wide off the turn and taking the victory for driver Trae Porter and trainer Kelly Lancaster-Dailey, the latter co-owner with Joseph Cliver. On the trot, the Greenshoe three-year-old gelding Giuseppe C made it two straight “the hard way”: he got away last from the rail, yet still could circle his field to post a 1:56.4 victory for driver Bradley Chisholm, trainer Juan Cano, and Hot Lead Farm.

You’ve read the name of driver Bradley Chisholm twice already, but that fact only tells half the story, as the 29-year-old was the day’s leader with four sulky successes. Patrick Ryder had two wins, as did Tim Tetrick; the five-time defending Philly champion doubled his season’s lead over Simon Allard, with the tally now reading 124-122 after Allard won one race. Among trainers, Kelly Lancaster-Dailey had a pair of victories, as did Dean Eckley; combine the latter fact with Scott Di Domenico sending out one winning charge, and you have a 46-46 deadlock for meet honors.

Racing resumes at Harrah’s Philly on Friday afternoon at 12:25, with trotters both established and up=-and-coming filling the featured slots. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.

For complete race results, click here: US Trotting results.

From the PHHA / Harrah’s Philadelphia