Yesterday and today: April 29 racing highlights
Forest Funds won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 24. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: TYLER CONNER WINS THREE
Young jockey Tyler Conner continued his winning ways yesterday evening at Penn National, scoring three times for three different trainers.
Conner, who won 168 times last year, with purse earnings of over $3.2 million, now has 46 wins from 320 starters in 2016 and four wins in the last two days. He is tied for second at Penn National with 36 wins there and is fourth in that colony’s standings by earnings. In both categories, however, he is far behind leader Angel Rodriguez, who has a 29-win lead over his nearest riding rival.
On Thursday, Conner’s three winners ranged in odds from 4-5 to 6.20-1. In the first, a claiming race, he guided Crea Can Do to a front-running, 3 3/4 length score in 1:46.50 for one mile 70 yards, a race in which the Dublin gelding, trained by Michael Dilger, was never threatened.
Conner also took the second half of the early double, also in front-running fashion, when Pacific Ridge romped home six lengths clear of his pursuers in a $4,000 starter allowance for trainer Kimberly Graci. Running time for the six furlongs was a solid 1:11.16 — faster than allowance runners later on the card. Pacific Ridge paid $8.40 to win and capped a $76.40 double.
Conner’s lone victory aboard a favorite on the day came in the fifth when he guided Paytoplay to, yes, a front-running romp. In bottom level maiden company, Paytoplay rolled home by seven in 1:50.21 for 1 1/16 miles for trainer John Conner.
ALSO…
- S.S. Minnow ran down Shiny Finish in the final furlong to win the day’s featured $29,500 allowance at Penn National by a neck. It was just another head back to Charleston Pier. Helmed by Josean Ramirez, S.S. Minnow’s fateful trip earned the Pollard’s Vision gelding his fourth win in 13 career tries. He’s trained by Michael Lerman.
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.
- A pair of interesting upper-level allowances highlight the Laurel Park card this afternoon. In the eighth, Double Whammy (9-5) was toiling for just $5,000 back in December, but since Mary Eppler claimed him, he’s won a two allowance races and finished second in two others, most recently taking second allowance foes by seven lengths and earning a 97 Beyer speed figure. Among the rivals he’ll contend with here are the talented but lightly raced Top of Mind (4-1), the runner-up in his last, last-out allowance winner He’s Achance (9-2), and Larry Jones’s Fair Grounds shipper Etruscan (8-1).
- Metaboss (5-2) makes his long awaited return to the races in race nine, a one mile turf allowance test. But it’s no easy spot, including as it does My Engima (8-1), a four-time winner on the turf; Mutasaawy (12-1), who took an allownce last out; and Miracle Wood runner-up Charmed Victory (8-1), making his first start on grass. Metaboss, who won the 2015 Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby but finished sixth as the favorite in the Grade 3 Spiral, has not raced since March of last year. Now trained by Michael Dickinson, Metaboss will have Horacio Karamanos in the irons.
- Powerful Sun (7-2) gets the nod as lukewarm favorite in Penn National’s featured sixth race, a $30,400 allowance test going six furlongs on the main track. The PA-bred Power by Far gelding was second a neck against similar last out and will have Wilfredo Corujo in the irons. Among the rivals he’ll face are Thinking of Girls (6-1), the show horse in Powerful Sun’s last who defeated similar two back; Fara’s Kid (4-1), who finished fifth that day after a wide journey and gets 23 percent rider Angel Rodriguez in the irons; and Cooking Up a Storm (5-1), who’s been first or second in six straight, mostly against starter allowance rivals.
