Top three all disqualified at Harrah’s Philly

If you’ve never heard of a harness racing occurrence where the top three finishers were all disqualified for pylon violations, that’s about to change. In what is thought to be a first, the tenth race at Harrah’s Philadelphia produced that exact result on Wednesday afternoon (July 26th).

In a race that featured plenty of action and several lead changes, track announcer Mike Bozich commented: “I can’t wait to see the chart from this race” as eventual disqualified winner Trumpster Blues made his second move of the race on the last turn. Bozich, referring to the racing action, turned out to be prophetic because the chart shows every horse in the race placed by the judges.

Trumpster Blues, driven by owner/trainer Bill Augustine, went off at 10 cents to the dollar and the prohibitive favorite was a clear 2 1/4 length winner, but also a clear pylon violator on first turn. Second choice Bettors Ville, trained and driven by Ivan Llopez, was also placed for a pylon violation as was third place Flying Tiger who was steered by Jimmie Solomon.

This resulted in three longshots being promoted to the top three finishers, led by 24 to 1 Rockwell, driven by veteran Dave Miller. This had to be the unlikeliest of Miller’s 14,090 career wins, considering his horse actually finished fourth, beaten 11 lengths. 44 to 1 Stay Cruzin (Andy Miller), was moved up from fifth to second, producing an all-Miller $707 Exacta. In contrast, the Trumpster Blues/Bettors Ville Exacta was paying $7 for every deuce. Where’s Greg (Jack Pelling) was placed third at 59 to 1 and the resulting Trifecta paid close to $3,000 for $2.

In a sport where you’ve never seen it all, you have to wonder how this could be topped.

For the chart of the race, click here: US Trotting results.

by Garnet Barnsdale, for Harnesslink