Yesterday and today: April 18 racing highlights
Monster Sleeping won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 3. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: PIMENTEL OUT INDEFINITELY
Jockey Julian Pimentel will have his injured foot re-examined on Monday and is out indefinitely, his agent Roniel Gerardo said Saturday.
The regular rider for multiple stakes-winning multi-millionaire Ben’s Cat and widely considered one of the top pilots in the Maryland colony, Pimentel returned from a month on the sidelines to ride in a race Friday but suffered a minor setback and took off his remaining two mounts that day and Saturday.
Pimentel missed his lone scheduled mount on Sunday, Mr. Magician in the fifth race. Feargal Lynch took the mount, and Mr. Magician finished sixth in the starter/optional claiming test.
Pimentel suffered two cracks in his foot after being stepped on by a horse six weeks ago. He wore a boot for support in his return off a month layoff but had some swelling after finishing off the board with I’m In in Friday’s fifth race.
“He is going to see the specialist Monday and have an MRI,” Gerardo said. “We’ll see what happens and go from there.”
ALSO…
- High Ridge Road thrashed a field of seven rivals to take the seventh race yesterday at Laurel Park, a first level allowance, by six lengths. The daughter of Quality Road, shipped into Laurel Park by trainer Linda Rice, stalked the pace while three wide under Horacio Karamanos, took over at the head of the lane and went on to win in 1:38.60 for the one-turn mile. High Ridge Road has now won two of six starts and finished in the money in all six. She was a a $350,000 auction purchase by owner Martin Schwartz.
- Always Sunshine — one of many horses stuck at Parx Racing because of the equine herpesvirus-necessitated quarantine — made productive use of his time there Sunday when he took a $54,000 third allowance by over 11 lengths in a sharp 1:09.17 for six furlongs. Under jockey Frankie Pennington, the Ned Allard trainee won with his rider “merely along for the ride” at odds of 1-5, according to the chart. The winner of December’s Dave’s Friend Stakes, Always Sunshine most recently was second in the Grade 3 Tom Fool at Aqueduct.
- Trainer Michael Pino won two Sunday at Parx Racing. He took the day’s first and last races, both claiming events, with Tachiello in the first and Seven Dreams in the eighth. Both runners were odds-on in the wagering.
- Pennsylvania-bred Illuminant hung onto third place in Saturday’s Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on the turf at Keeneland. The Michael McCarthy trainee was at 37.50-1 the second longest shot on the board. Also, Pennsylvania-bred Tisdale finished 10th in the Northern Spur Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Saturday.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- A field of eight is slated to contest today’s Parx Racing feature, a second-level allowance/optional claiming event going one mile on the main track. The entry of Market Blaster and Waitin On One is the tepid 5-2 favorite, but second choice Lawyer Dave (3-1), for trainer Marcos Zulueta, defeated similar rivals last out.
- Your Pace or Mine (2-1) goes for her third win in four starts in today’s sixth at Parx Racing, a starter allowance. The daughter of Mineshaft, trained by Guadalupe Guerrero, defeated a similar group last out by five lengths; her lone recent defeat came in an allowance test when third by a length and change. Hector Caballero will ride. Among the rivals he’ll face are True History (3-1), making her first start for trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero and her first start on the East Coast after toiling in southern California for the first 17 races of her career. Roberto Alvarado, Jr. will ride.
- Musket Mary (2-1) and jockey Chuck Lopez go for their third straight win in today’s eighth at Parx, a starter allowance. The Michael Moore trainee has taken allowance tests in each of her last two, both by less than a length. But she doesn’t own the race’s longest winning streak; that honor goes to Big Momma (9-2), a Juan Vazquez trainee who’s won four straight at lower levels.
