Yesterday and today: May 3 racing highlights
Monster Sleeping won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 3. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: PENNINGTON TAKES PARX JOCKEY LEAD
Jockey Frankie Pennington scored three times on Monday, giving him four wins in the last two days and moving him into first place in the Parx Racing jockey standings.
Pennington now has 26 wins from 109 starters in Bensalem, two more than Hector Caballero and four clear of Emmanuel Esquivel. Pennington also leads the colony with more than $858,000 in earnings.
Pennington lodged his biggest win of the day in race seven, when he guided Poised for Action to a two-length score as the even-money favorite in a $51,000 allowance test. Poised for Action, trained by John Servis, stalked the pace while wide before taking over in the lane to win going away in 1:04.56 for 5 1/2 furlongs.
Pennington also scored in the day’s first and last races, taking a bottom-level claimer with 19-1 outsider Indigo Island in the first and then guiding Fooled by Magic to an easy maiden-breaking score as the 3-5 chalk in the nightcap.
ALSO…
- Resourceful, never out of the money in nine previous starts, went off the 9-10 favorite in yesterday’s fifth at Parx, a starter allowance. That streak is over, however. In last after a half-mile, Resourceful made minor progress in the last quarter but finished fourth, beaten by over three lengths. Runs for Luck, the 8-5 second choice for trainer Patricia Farro, won the race.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Awesome Alex (8-5), winless in nine career starts but second or third in his last four, is favored in today’s third from Parx Racing, a $37,000 maiden special weight test for Pennsylvania-breds. Trained by John Servis, the Afleet Alex gelding will have Frankie Pennington in the irons but will be making his first start since last August. Among his top rivals is Grit’n’grind (3-1), a Juan Carlos Guerrero trainee who finished third (but was placed second via disqualification) on debut and will be receiving Lasix for the first time.
- A field of seven is entered in race seven, a $51,000 allowance test for fillies and mares going one mile 70 yards. Whogoosedthemoose (8-5) is the morning line favorite and enters having finished in the money in seven straight (7-3-3-1), including a second-place finish last out against similar as the favorite. Ignite (3-1), who has split three recent decisions with the favorite, is the second choice, but in her last meeting with Whogoosedthemoose, she finished six lengths behind that runner. Another runner worth a look at a price is Dolled Up (12-1), a sophomore Kevin Sleeter trainee who broke her maiden last out in her fourth career start .
- The two races highlighted above include some trainers with gaudy stats: John Servis, winning at a 45 percent clip at the track; Ramon Preciado, allowed back on pending his appeals, also at 45 percent; Juan Carlos Guerrero (26%); and Howard Brown (27%) among them.
