Yesterday and today: April 13 racing highlights
Monster Sleeping won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 3. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: ABIDING STAR, ACOSTA STAR
A possible start in Saturday’s Federico Tesio Stakes wasn’t to be for Abiding Star, but the sophomore Uncle Mo colt made the most of the situation yesterday at Parx Racing.
Marooned there because of an equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) outbreak, the Ned Allard trainee tackled older rivals in a third allowance going 1 mile 70 yards. Under rider J.D. Acosta, Abiding Star took charge early and kept it all the way around.
Leading by 1 1/2 lengths after an opening quarter in 23.03 seconds, Abiding Star widened his advantage at each subsequent call. The Private Terms Stakes winner, Abiding Star led by five after three-quarters in 1:11.64 and by 8 3/4 lengths at the wire. Running time was 1:41.84.
For Abiding Star it was his fourth win in four attempts this season, and he’s now earned over $127,000 in 2016. Nasa, the even-money favorite, chased from second throughout to no avail. Abiding Star paid $8.40 to win as the 3.20-1 third choice in the four-horse group.
The win was one of four on the day for rider Acosta, three of them in front-running fashion. He scored similar wins with Folly Fashion (3.80-1) in an allowance test and Hear Me Purr (9-2) in a maiden claiming race. He also won with Twenty Percent (2.10-1).
Acosta, long a fixture at Charles Town, has made a smooth transition to Parx Racing, where he currently ranks second among the track’s riders in wins with 18 and purse earnings in 2016.
ALSO…
- Wise Son was vanned off after falling in the last 70 yards of the Parx nightcap. He eventually did get back to his feet under his own power.
- Trainer Ramon Preciado has been ruled off by Parx Racing after a string of positive tests for clenbuterol exhausted management’s patience, the Daily Racing Form reports. The trainer, who had won with seven of eight starters on Sunday and Monday and leads all trainers at Parx with an absurd 23 wins from 51 starters, sent out two on Tuesday, both in the last race. No Returns (9-10) won the race, while Que Facil finished fifth.
- The Equine Disease Communication Center reports that four horses in the Parx Racing equine herpesvirus outbreak have either died or been euthanized to date. That number includes the Michael Aro trainee who was the first horse to be diagnosed, two horses that were in that same barn and were removed to an isolation barn, and a fourth horse who developed clinical signs of the disease at the track. Two barns remain under quarantine.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Millionaire Lucy’s Bob Boy (5-2) makes his season debut tonight at Charles Town in a $27,000 allowance test going 6 1/2 furlongs that’s carded as race seven. The seven-year-old Flatter gelding, trained by Sandra Dono, has won 25 of 41 career starts and was last seen finishing fourth in last fall’s West Virginia Breeders Classic. Top local jock Arnaldo Bocachica will ride. But it won’t be easy; the top two finishers from last year’s West Virginia Breeders Classic Onion Juice, winner Help a Brother (4-1) and runner-up Comeonletsplay (10-1) are also scheduled to post. Help A Brother, making his season debut, will have Antonio Lopez up for trainer-owner Lewis Craig, Jr., while Comeonletsplay will have Gerald Almodavar.
- Ellie’s Lil Man (4-1), who won at first asking at Charles Town March 4, will make his second career start in a 4 1/2 furlong allowance sprint for state-breds that have never won twice. Antonio Lopez will ride the sophomore Windsor Castle gelding for trainer-owner James W. Casey. The favorite in the race is trainer Ronney Brown’s King of Anything (8-5), with Jose Montano up.
- Impressive maiden winner Here’s the Call is the 8-5 morning line favorite in a first allowance for sophomore Pennsylvania-bred fillies that’s race five at Penn National. The daughter of Here’s Zealous scored by over five in her last start — though that was back in January — and has a win and a second from two starts for trainer Enrique Arroyo and will have Edwin Gonzalez up. Among the rivals she’ll contend with are Honest Report (3-1), Chapel of Chimes (4-1), and the stakes-placed Gina Rosenthal trainee Gala’s Bank (9-2).
