PA-breds take center stage as Parx returns
Parx Racing has been dark the last couple of weeks, but the Bensalem, PA track will return with a bang Monday.
The Monday card features seven stakes for Pennsylvania-breds, and on Tuesday, the card will host three stakes, including the Grade 3 Smarty Jones. The 1 1/16-mile test for three-year-olds is the local prep for the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby September 24.
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Monday’s card is dotted with familiar names, none moreso than Chub Wagon. The five-year-old Hey Chub mare is the 9-5 favorite in the $100,000, six-furlong Dr. Teresa Garofalo Memorial Stakes..
Chub Wagon has won 12 of 13 in her career and was second in her lone defeat. She’s won both of her starts this year, including a three-length win in the Alma North at Laurel Park last out. Silvestre Gonzalez will ride for new trainer Regina Brennan.
Chub Wagon, trained until now by Guadalupe Preciado, is on the cusp of $650,000 in career earnings. She’s not the only well-known runner on the card, though.
One race later in the Marshall Jenney, a turf sprint, The Critical Way is the 6-5 morning line choice. The Jose Delgado trainee won Monmouth’s Get Serious Stakes three back, and he enjoyed his biggest win to date last year over the Parx course. Last August he earned the first graded win of his career when he scored by a nose in the Grade 3 Parx Dash.
Paco Lopez, who rode the eight-year-old Tizway gelding in his Parx Dash win last year but has not ridden him in any of his three starts this season, has the mount.
Three races later, the Banjo Picker Sprint Stakes, at six furlongs, brings together Beren and Fortheluvofbourbon. The former won the De Francis Dash in his most recent start, upsetting Wondrwherecraigis and others in the process. The latter enters on a three-race win streak while amassing strong speed figures (106, 101, and 107 in his last three starts).
The day also features two stakes for juveniles that are both Pennsylvania-bred and -sired. In the Whistle Pig for the boys, Ninetyprcentmaddie is the lukewarm 7-2 favorite off a first-out victory over the strip. Frankie Pennington will ride for Butch Reid.
In the Miss Blue Tye Dye for the girls, favoritism belongs to Flor de Sambra. The Social Inclusion filly won her first outing, versus other state-breds, by nearly eight lengths. Silvestre Gonzalez will ride for Guadalupe Preciado.
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