Weather- and track-related issues caused Laurel and Penn National to cancel their Saturday cards, while Parx tried to run on both Saturday and Sunday — and had to abandon after two races one day and after three the other.
That left Charles Town the only regional track to run a full card this weekend, and handle was reasonally robust. Total handle on the Charles Town live product was about $1.08 million — the track’s second consecutive million-dollar Saturday, following nine straight Saturday cards with lesser handle. The race that drew the highest handle into the win-place-show pool was the third, a 4 1/2 furlong maiden claimer for three year-old, West Virginia-bred fillies with a field of nine. Sharon’s Edge pulled the 12-1 upset with Christian Hiraldo up. The late Pick Four attracted $18,727 in action, the busiest horizontal exotic of the day…
Parx Racing managed to run a full card yesterday, and perhaps the happiest people on the grounds were Ramon Moya pere and Ramon Moya fils. The trainer-jock combo struck with 4-5 Alvito in a $7,500 claimer and three races later with favored Two Hearts in One in a starter allowance. They were the only trainer or jockey to win more than one on the day…
Keep the Canoli won the Parx feature by a head in a wide open allowance heat. He just held off the late charge of favored Ricky Tick in a race in which five horses had legitimate shots to win in the late running. The gelded son of Imperialism has now won three of 16 starts and $125,000; he’s also placed in two stakes…
Less glamorous company in the nightcap — nickel claimers — but perhaps the performance of the day, as Charles Russell, a gelded son of More than Ready, won off by 11 lengths. Once the field hit the top of the lane, this race was no longer in doubt. Charles Russell ran a mile in 1:39.17 (though this was a 1 mile 70 yard race) — more than a second faster than Keep the Canoli and the second-level allowance horses had just one race before (1:40.41)…
