Yesterday and today: April 27 racing highlights
Forest Funds won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 24. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: A THREE-BAGGER FOR FARRO
The 2016 meet at Parx Racing has been kind to Patricia Farro so far, and yesterday was no exception.
The veteran conditioner won three races yesterday, and those three wins brought her even with Ramon Preciado atop the trainer leaderboard by wins. She also leads all trainers in Bensalem by earnings by a wide margin, with nearly $200,000 more in purse earnings than any of her rivals.
She took the day’s featured race, a $42,000 allowance test for Pennsylvania-breds, when Prodigious, the second favorite in the 11-horse field, romped to a five-length victory. Prodigious, under rider Emmanuel Esquivel, saved ground in fourth into the turn before splitting foes and drawing away to the win in 1:05.72 for 5 1/2 furlongs. Prodigious, a five-year-old With Distinction gelding, has now won three of 13 starts and earned $97,570.
Farro and Esquivel also teamed up to win a claiming event in race three when favored Sharp Stick, sent off at 8-5, won by a length-and-a-half. Farro’s third winner came in the very next race when Final Ritual prevailed in a long duel with Our Luck to win by a head; the latter was 13 clear of the show horse.
ALSO…
- Frank Pollara trainee Smarty Never Quits benefited from the addition of Lasix and a lackluster group of rivals, and the Smarty Jones filly broke her maiden easily in a 10 1/2 length score in a $50,000 maiden special weight test. She now has a win and two thirds from four starts.
- The Daily Racing Form reports that an attorney for trainer Ramon Preciado has filed suit in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow him to enter horses at Parx Racing while he appeals the 270 days of suspensions he has received. Owners have transferred 44 of the 58 horses he had in his care.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Charles Town Races will not race this evening. The next live racing card at the track will be Friday, May 6.
- Sweet Maggie Mae (5-1), who won at first asking for trainer Kathleen Parker three weeks ago, returns to action in a one-mile Pennsylvania-bred allowance at Penn National carded as race one. The daughter of Wild and Wicked took the early lead in her debut before dropping to second, and then she ran past the leader inside the furlong marker to win by 3 1/2 lengths. Jockey Felix Pinero, who has just two wins this year — one in this runner’s debut — will have the mount. Sweet Maggie Mae will have to contend with the favorite, Chapel of Chimes (2-1), a Brandon Kulp trainee who was second last out against similar after breaking her maiden in her prior start.
- Frequent bridesmaid Honeydukes (7-2) — second or third in six straight — is back at it in tonight’s second race at Penn National, a maiden special weight for PA-breds going six furlongs. But it’s Her Divineness (3-1) who is installed as the tepid favorite after a pair of runner-up efforts against similar. And two Graham Motion trainees, Valued Vow (4-1), who is a half-sib to a stakes-placed runner, and Bay Angel (9-2) are among a bevy of horses in here with a shot.
