By: Jerry Connors, Jr.
CHESTER PA – The Captain Midnight gelding Heaven Needs Me did something on Sunday that few other winners at Harrah’s Philadelphia do – he came from dead last to take the $13,500 featured pace for developing horses in 1:52.4.
They were five-wide going towards the first turn, with favored TH Colby having to settle into a five-tuck as second choice Lazarus Star finally emerged with the leader in :28.1, then hit the half in :56.4. Down the back the outer “flow” was clogged and TH Colby stayed in, but Simon Allard did tip Heaven Needs Me out, then unleashed a three-wide move with him at the 1:24.2 three-quarters.
Heaven Needs Me gained a sizable amount of real estate (identical back quarters of :27) to defeat 46-1 shot Son Of Era by a neck, with TH Colby having to settle for third after not clearing until angling behind the winner in upper stretch. Heaven Needs Me is another of the well-performing team of trainer-owner Chelsey Faurot.
Good Friday, who was victorious when he made his sophomore qualifying return on Good Friday (April 3), reduced his mark to 1:53.4 in winning the $12,000 sub-feature for the oncoming pacers. The gelded son of Tall Dark Stranger (out of Virgin Mary) had not previously raced on the front end, but Philly’s top driver Tim Tetrick saw his best chances from the outside post eight were from up top, so he used the horse to clear past the quarter and set the pace. Good Friday then withstood railshooter Ghetto Loupastar by a half length, with pocketsitting Strangeronthebeach only another neck away from taking it all. as Good Friday won for trainer Tom Shay and owners Howard Taylor and Teens Freibert.
In the $13,000 fast-class pace, the Betterthancheddar gelding Iknowbetter shipped in from Yonkers, went right to the lead and set fractions of :27.1, :56.2, and 1:23.4. The Gotham invader had a pesky challenger in first-over Build The Wall much of the last half, and both showed gameness, with Iknowbetter emerging the winner by a half length in 1:51.2 for the ownership of Jennifer Bongiorno Stable LLC, Blair Corbeil, and Mike Mcallister.
Meanwhile, Iknowbetter’s trainer-driver Joe Bongiorno continues to be a kind of “victim of his own success,” especially on the training side. He drove three horses from his stable to victory Sunday, and had a fourth member of his shedrow finishing third – the only horse in 16 starts at the meet not to finish 1-2 for the Bongiorno barn! He had a .867 UTR heading into Friday (10-7-3-0), managed to lower that to .852 with a first and a second from his only two entrants, and Sunday the 4-3-0-1 tally – cause to rejoice in virtually every barn in the world -- again reduced his UTR all the way down to .847. We should all have such hard luck.
Aside from the Bongiorno heroics, meet leader Tim Tetrick drove three winners, with Simon Allard and George Napolitano Jr. each getting two sulky successes.
There will be no live racing this coming Thursday, April 30, as Philly will present a live program on Friday (12:25), Kentucky Derby Saturday (12:40), and Sunday (12:40) this coming week. The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series horses get together for the first time in 2026 on the Friday program, with three-year-old pacing fillies featured; that card will be drawn on Monday, with the following two cards put together in each of the following two days. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
CHESTER PA – The Captain Midnight gelding Heaven Needs Me did something on Sunday that few other winners at Harrah’s Philadelphia do – he came from dead last to take the $13,500 featured pace for developing horses in 1:52.4.
They were five-wide going towards the first turn, with favored TH Colby having to settle into a five-tuck as second choice Lazarus Star finally emerged with the leader in :28.1, then hit the half in :56.4. Down the back the outer “flow” was clogged and TH Colby stayed in, but Simon Allard did tip Heaven Needs Me out, then unleashed a three-wide move with him at the 1:24.2 three-quarters.
Heaven Needs Me gained a sizable amount of real estate (identical back quarters of :27) to defeat 46-1 shot Son Of Era by a neck, with TH Colby having to settle for third after not clearing until angling behind the winner in upper stretch. Heaven Needs Me is another of the well-performing team of trainer-owner Chelsey Faurot.
Good Friday, who was victorious when he made his sophomore qualifying return on Good Friday (April 3), reduced his mark to 1:53.4 in winning the $12,000 sub-feature for the oncoming pacers. The gelded son of Tall Dark Stranger (out of Virgin Mary) had not previously raced on the front end, but Philly’s top driver Tim Tetrick saw his best chances from the outside post eight were from up top, so he used the horse to clear past the quarter and set the pace. Good Friday then withstood railshooter Ghetto Loupastar by a half length, with pocketsitting Strangeronthebeach only another neck away from taking it all. as Good Friday won for trainer Tom Shay and owners Howard Taylor and Teens Freibert.
In the $13,000 fast-class pace, the Betterthancheddar gelding Iknowbetter shipped in from Yonkers, went right to the lead and set fractions of :27.1, :56.2, and 1:23.4. The Gotham invader had a pesky challenger in first-over Build The Wall much of the last half, and both showed gameness, with Iknowbetter emerging the winner by a half length in 1:51.2 for the ownership of Jennifer Bongiorno Stable LLC, Blair Corbeil, and Mike Mcallister.
Meanwhile, Iknowbetter’s trainer-driver Joe Bongiorno continues to be a kind of “victim of his own success,” especially on the training side. He drove three horses from his stable to victory Sunday, and had a fourth member of his shedrow finishing third – the only horse in 16 starts at the meet not to finish 1-2 for the Bongiorno barn! He had a .867 UTR heading into Friday (10-7-3-0), managed to lower that to .852 with a first and a second from his only two entrants, and Sunday the 4-3-0-1 tally – cause to rejoice in virtually every barn in the world -- again reduced his UTR all the way down to .847. We should all have such hard luck.
Aside from the Bongiorno heroics, meet leader Tim Tetrick drove three winners, with Simon Allard and George Napolitano Jr. each getting two sulky successes.
There will be no live racing this coming Thursday, April 30, as Philly will present a live program on Friday (12:25), Kentucky Derby Saturday (12:40), and Sunday (12:40) this coming week. The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes and Stallion Series horses get together for the first time in 2026 on the Friday program, with three-year-old pacing fillies featured; that card will be drawn on Monday, with the following two cards put together in each of the following two days. Free Philly program pages are or will be available at www.phha.org.
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