Team Ryder staying in the spotlight

CHESTER PA – On Saturday night, trainer Chris Ryder, newly-elected to the Hall Of Fame, won a Breeders Crown race with the sensational mare Twin B Joe Fresh, who may have clinched the Horse of the Year title with the win. But no resting on laurels – on Sunday afternoon at Harrah’s Philadelphia, Ryder sent out the Cattlewash – Lispatty freshman colt Master Of The House, who won the $11,250 featured pace at the southeast Pennsylvania oval in 1:54.

MASTER OF THE HOUSE REPLAY

Chris’ s son Patrick improved early position with the winner, then moved uncovered down the backstretch to go up and tackle pacesetting Lifeblood. In a two-horse breakaway Master Of The House proved the better by 1½ lengths while breaking his maiden for owners Craig Henderson and Lawrence Minowitz.

Co-featured was an $11,000 claiming handicap pace for high-priced competition. The Western Terror gelding Oh Coffee Bean was percolating with pace down the backstretch for driver Tyler Miller and swept past hard-used rivals, then made his lead stand up to the wire in 1:52.4. Oh Coffee Bean, now a winner in three of his last four races and twenty times in 2023-2024, is trained by Julius Czermann Jr. for owner Hamid Breedlove.

Need UR Opinion upped her lead as the winningest U.S.-based horse of 2024, with a sweep to the front before the three-quarters leading to a 1:52.1 triumph for driver George Napolitano Jr., trainer Dean Eckley (the meet leader), and owner Ameer Najor. The pacing mare with the winning ways had rung up fourteen triumphs in Delaware by July 1 and now has nineteen winners circle visits during 33 starts during the campaign.

(The North American leader is the pacer Hugh Heff, who in a coincidence also had fourteen wins in his first seasonal base, in Ontario, and then since going to Northside Downs in Nova Scotia has run off ten straight at the track’s top level, making him 24 for 38 with a bit more than two months left in the year.)

Tim Tetrick furthered his lead atop the Harrah’s driving standings by posting a four-bagger.

Racing resumes at Harrah’s Philadelphia on Thursday at 12:25. Friday’s card will feature a special 2:30 p.m. post to try to catch some of the Breeders Cup “crossover” crowd; that day and Sunday will feature the remaining races on both gaits in the John Simpson Sr. Memorial stakes series, with Friday showcasing two-year-old colts and Sunday’s 12:40 program highlighting three-year-old fillies.

Free Philly programs are or will be available at www.phha.org.

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

From the PHHA / Harrah’s Philadelphia