Parx picks and horses to watch: June 23 * The Racing Biz

PARX PICKS AND HORSES TO WATCH: JUNE 23

*Street Band upset the 2019 Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing . Photo by Allison Janezic.*

Parx Racing has an 11-race card on tap for this afternoon. Post time for the opener is 12:55p.m., and we’ve got Parx picks. The day starts with a carryover of $46,937 in the jackpot pick-5.

How’d we do last time at Parx?

RACE NUMBER	CONTENDERS	COMMENTS
Race 5	1-6-2-4	Freshman sire Practical Joke is off to a fast start at stud — three wins from his first seven starters — and figures to get a big shot to be a top stallion. His daughter #1 Stand Up Comic (5-2) gets top choice honors in this maiden contest for two-year-old fillies, the first baby race of the year at Parx. This miss is a half-sister to the stakes winner Hi Holiday, has been training forwardly (including a pair of bullets), and gets trainer Reid’s go-to rider in the red-hot Frankie Pennington in the irons. This one is the preferred of Reid’s two entrants, though both have similar work tabs… #6 Arrogant Girl (8-1) gets the bug boy Hernandez up, which gives her a seven-pound weight allowance. She’s a half to the stakes winner Happy Mesa… Sire Uptowncharlybrown does well with first-time starters like #2 Charly’s Choo Choo (6-1). This one’s a half to three winners, and trainer Ed Coletti can get them ready to win first time out… #4 Mecedora Coming (8-1) is a daughter of solid sire Jimmy Creed out of a winning Girolamo mare…
Race 10	2-5-6-1	The day’s feature is this open $48,000 allowance going 5 1/2 furlongs, and the short distance in this one should play to the advantage of the speedy local #2 Admiral Abe (3-1). The Robert Mosco trainee is somewhat distance-limited, but that’s no problem here: this short sprint should be right in his wheelhouse. He’s won three of four at the trip, and in his last five starts at distances under seven furlongs, he has a record of 5:4-1-0. He may also be controlling speed here… The class of the group is the Peter Miller shipper #5 Shashashakemeup (8-5), who kicked off 2021 by running second in a Grade 3 event at Santa Anita. He most recently ran poorly in the G1 Churchill Downs on the Derby Day undercard. Back in allowance company, he should have an opportunity to bounce back here. The big question is the distance; in his last couple, he’s been well back early, and if he does that today, he may just run out of real estate… #6 Steadytillready (9-2) won two straight in allowance company to close the Fair Grounds meet and owns a win at Parx… #1 Midtowncharlybrown (6-1) probably is a cut below the top couple in here — he was a distant second in his last behind Admiral Abe — and hasn’t run since January. But he’s got plenty of good efforts on the page that suggest he’s at least a legit contender to hit the board today…