Khaosan Road wins Trot in gritty duel

CHESTER PA – Khaosan Road overcame a two-move mile that saw him uncovered from late backstretch on, gamely outtrotting Resolve To Win to his left and stablemate Southwind Tyrion to his right to take the $16,000 fast-class handicap trot in 1:53.2 at Harrah’s Philadelphia on “Trottin’ Thursday” (which lived up to its name with six miles trotted in 1:55f or less).

KHAOSAN ROAD REPLAY

Khaosan Road, a gelded son of International Moni driven by Johnathan Ahle, saw longshot The Hazelton speed away to lead until Resolve To Win quarter-moved past the :27.4 quarter, and was content to sit third past a :57.2 half and most of the way down the backstretch, with favored barnmate Southwind Tyrion, making his first start in 308 days, on his back.

The winner charged up before the 1:25.1 three-quarters to tackle the leader, with “Tyrion” following his cover, and in an exciting stretch duel Khaosan Road, named after a popular tourist street in Bangkok, got the win from “the middle lane,” with Resolve To Win only a head back and Southwind Tyrion another     three parts of a length in arrears. Åke Svanstedt, whom one might expect anywhere where high-class trotters are gathered, sent out his third winner of the afternoon; this one is the winner of $463,056 for Knutsson Trotting Inc. and Little E LLC.

Bred in Sweden, shipping from Italy, a winner at Philly after three months off, and looking ready to take on the world – that’s the story of Ultion Face S, a Joke Face gelding who was an in-hand winner in 1:53.1 in his Stateside debut, the $13,000 co-featured fast-class trot.

David Miller (who tied with Simon Allard  for top driver of the day honors with three victories) floated out with the newcomer and spotted third just past the quarter, then down the back launched an uncovered assault on pacesetter Outside The Fire, who put up fractions of :28.3, :57.4, and 1:25.3. But the leader proved no match for Ultion Face S, who trotted his back numbers in :54.4 – :27 and looked like he could have gone more for trainer Per Engblom and owners Engblom Stable LLC and Jesper Bjorn Arvenberg.

There were also two top-level trots for horses climbing the classladder. In a $14,000 contest, Cheers Hanover and Frank Leahy met again, as they had in a Beal Consolation at Pocono, and again the pocket horse won – but this time it was the Bar Hopping sophomore gelding Cheers Hanover who had his picture taken.

The pacesetter at Pocono when he was caught, this time Cheers Hanover followed Frank Leahy through fractions of :28.1, :57.2, and 1:25.3 before vacating the two-hole mid-far turn and wearing down the frontstepper by 1½ lengths in 1:54.1. David Miller drove the three-year-old to victory for trainer Ron Burke and owners Burke Racing Stable LLC and Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Jim Simpson, and J&T Silva- Purnel & Libby.

The $13,500 subfeature for up-and-comers saw the Aperfectyankee sophomore colt Themoneyisback S get the early lead in :28.4, yield to sit behind Flightline through middle fractions of :57.4 and 1:25.4, pop out on the far turn and go right to the lead, then marched off to defeat Alwayswithus by 2¾ lengths       in 1:54.3; Flightline held for third. Themoneyisback S is trained and was driven by Jim Oscarsson, and is owned by his Oscarsson Racing Stable Inc.

Racing resumes at Philly on Friday at 12:25, with distaff pacers in the spotlight. A week from Friday, September 5, Harrah’s Philadelphia will proudly host a $1.4M card headlined by the four $300,000 Championships for the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes for the four divisions of two-year-olds, plus $50,000 consolations. Frantic Hanover (colt pace) and Ginger Tree Lex (filly trot), winners of all four of their preliminaries, will go for “the clean sweep” of their respective divisions.

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