Yesterday and today: May 9 racing highlights
Monster Sleeping won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 3. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: POOL WINNER, MCCARTHY TEAM UP
Bettors hammered Pool Winner down to 3-5 by post time in yesterday’s eighth at Laurel Park, a $45,000 allowance/optional claiming test going 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf.
They were right — but just barely.
The four-year-old, trained by Alan Goldberg and making his first start since November, disputed the early pace, took over, and held off the charge of Triple Burner to win by a head in 1:05.11 over a course rated good. It was just another neck back to early leader Chief Exchanger.
Pool Winner, gelded since his last start, has now been officially first or second in nine of 10 starts on the lawn; in the other, he won but was disqualified. He’s now won three of 12 career starts and earned $145,090.
Pool Winner was ridden yesterday by Trevor McCarthy. That was one of three wins for McCarthy on the day — all aboard favorites. He also scored with 9-10 Another Badge in the fourth race and 2.10-1 Desert Princess in the fifth as that runner broke her maiden.
McCarthy won a total of five times on Saturday and Sunday.
ALSO…
- Laurel Park bettors weren’t buying Silent Waters in yesterday’s ninth, a $42,000 allowance test going long on the grass. Despite his last-out victory in maiden special weight company, they made the Massachusetts-bred son of Silent Name 11-1 at post time. But Silent Waters didn’t care, and he teamed up with Alex Cintron to romp to a four-length win over favored Pizmo Time. The Andrew Simoff trainee now has two wins, two seconds, and third from six starts and has not been worse than second in three turf tries.
- Lawyer Dave continued to confound the bettors yesterday at Parx Racing, bouncing back from a fifth-place finish to defeat allowance foes by two lengths at odds of 5.50-1. The Marcos Zulueta trainee has won twice in four starts this year — and was fifth and sixth in his other two. Overall, he’s won eight of 46 starts and earned nearly $300,000 in his career. It was Zulueta’s second win on the day; Juan Vazquez also won two.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- A crowded field of 11 runners is slated to tangle in the eighth race at Parx Racing — the only track in the region running today. The $52,000 allowance contest is a wide-open affair, with seven-year-old Monty Haul (3-1) installed as the lukewarm morning line favorite. The With Distinction gelding was claimed from his last by trainer Robert Mosco, when he ran third at Aqueduct, and he’ll have Jorge Vargas in the irons. Other contenders in the group include Tell Tale Friend (4-1), a Scott Lake trainee riding a three-race winning streak; Foreign Potential (8-1), third against similar last out in his first start this year; and Cinco Y Cinco (15-1), who scored a neck victory against similar last out at 47-1 odds.
- There are a lot of ways to go in the seventh at Parx, a $40,000 maiden claimer in which the morning line favorite, Outpatient (5-2), looks to be vulnerable; the Ramon Preciado trainee was nowhere in his debut, against lesser, and has been away since early December. On the other hand, betting against Preciado at Parx — 42 percent win rate this year — is always a dicey proposition. Other options include V J’s Irish Rose (7-2), third against similar last out; Cantina Butterfly (6-1), dropping into the maiden claiming ranks for the first time; and Bellamy Cat (12-1), second against similar last out.
