Harrah's Philadelphia: JK Lady Liberty, Loyal To The End victorious in PA Sire Stakes

The 2-year-old pacing filly JK Lady Liberty, by Captain Crunch and out of 2014 Horse of the Year JK She'salady, became the only two-time Pennsylvania Sire Stakes winner in her section during Sunday's third preliminary round for the state-sired horses at Harrah's Philadelphia.

JK Lady Liberty gradually made her way to the lead at the 27 4/5 quarter under measured handling by Corey Callahan, then yielded to brushing Gold Impact to sit the two-hole behind middle splits of 56 4/5 and 1:25. The pace-setter battled on gamely, but JK Lady Liberty gained into a 27 second last quarter to win by a half-length in 1:52; her third straight triumph for trainer Nancy Takter and 3 Brothers tables.

In the other Sire Stakes division, the Captaintreacherous-Lifetime Trust miss Loyal To The End was also a pocket-sitter from just past the 27 second quarter on, but after a 54 4/5 half, she found herself fifth at the 1:22 4/5 three-quarters - her competition was vying two- and three-wide for a commanding position. But the outer tiers melted off, and Johnathan Ahle was able to get Loyal To The End to overhaul pace-setting favorite Positive Princess by 1 3/4 lengths while equaling her mark of 1:52 1/5. Loyal To The End started her career with wins in a Stallion Series and a Pennsylvania All-Stars event, then was fourth upon trying the PaSS, but here she got the job done for trainer Noel Daley and the partnership of Let It Ride Stables Inc., Jesmeral Stable, Hutchison Harness LLC. and CT Stables LLC.

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Four $20,000 Stallion Series divisions helped raise the total bounty offered to the stakes babies to $207,254. The Sweet Lou-Restive Hanover filly Sleep Over became the only two-time winner in this PaStS group while winning in the day's fastest group split, 1:52 1/5, a new mark, for driver Jim Marohn Jr. After one start in Canada, Boardwalk Babe came to trainer for Joe Pavia Jr. and the Double The Fun Stable, and she has now won three in-a-row.

The other StS chalk to triumph was also driven by Marohn Jr. - the Heston Blue Chip-Past Post filly Step It Up, who had won two overnights and here added a stakes credit to her tally by stopping the timer in 1:53 3/5. Linda Toscano is her conditioner for Let It Ride Stables Inc. (giving them an SS and a StS credit on the day), South Mountain Stables and Richard Freese.

Sweet Lou sired a second Stallion Series winner in A Secret Treasurer (dam Dream Of Treasure), who broke her maiden in 1:55 1/5 for driver Mark Herschberger and trainer Meg Crone, the latter co-owner with Anthony Haughan and Thomas Gillis.

And then there was the real bomber - the Tall Dark Stranger-JK Higher Power filly Jodo Hanover, who overcame post eight in her first start for trainer-owner Carlo Poliseno and lit up the board at $107.00 to win under the direction of Simon Allard.

Jim Marohn Jr. drove three winners on Sunday; Troy Beyer and George Napolitano each checked home first twice.

Racing resumes at Philly on Thursday at 12:25 p.m. (EDT) with the day's usual assortment of fast trotters of both the fast-class and developing types. The next day brings the Pennsylvania 2-year-old pacing colts and geldings to the riverside oval - and all they did in their previous PaSS prelim at Pocono was go 1:49 2/5f and 1:49 4/5f!

--press release (PHHA/Harrah's Philadelphia)--