Engblom stable goes 1-2 in Philly feature

CHESTER PA – Per Engblom, whose stable has sent out the second-most harness racing winners in North America this season (behind Ron Burke),  had the 1-2 finishers in the $12,000 featured pace at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, as Tonto Returns defeated Beanzy Fresh in a new lifetime mark of 1:53.2.

TONTO RETURNS REPLAY

Tonto Returns, a three-year-old Fort Knox gelding who has now won three in a row, had the lead at the :27.3 quarter then yielded to his stablemate, who got a breather to the half in :57.3 with “Tonto” right behind. Goodbye Stranger made a powerful backstretch challenge to and past the 1:25.1 three quarters, but his bid tapered off, and through the stretch the big battle was between the two barnmates, with Tonto Returns coming up the inside to win by three-quarters of a length for driver Simon Allard and the partnership of Evans Nation, Engblom Stable LLC, and Hickory Hollow Stables.

Allard had a second winner for Engblom, the only trainer to double Sunday, and he completed a personal three-bagger (to bring him to 15-for-46 in the last six Philly cards) with the $884,206 winner of 64 races, the Rock N Roll Heaven gelding Lyons Steel. If there were a dictionary definition of the term “horses for courses,” Lyons Steel’s picture would be next to the definition, as he won for the third time in his last four starts at the southeast Pennsylvania, on Sunday following the “Tonto Returns method”: sitting in the pocket, then rallying near the pylons for a three-quarter length victory. Second here was Divine Right, who went a huge race in the 1:51.2 mile, but Lyons Steel continued his local love affair for trainer Jose Ramos and owner BD Racing (and somewhere Dennis Watson was smiling).

The top-priced claimers on the grounds contested an $11,000 pace, which was taken by the Heston Blue Chip gelding Blowin Smoke by a neck over DP Realordeal in 1:51.4 for driver Troy Beyer. Blowin Smoke was haltered by owner Mark Jakubik for $12,500 on September 14 and entrusted to trainer Darren Taneyhill, and since then his scorecard has been 7-3-1-2-1, good for $22,280 in purses.

Racing resumes at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon at 12:25 p.m. 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