Yesterday and today: May 10 racing highlights
Monster Sleeping won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 3. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: MIRKAMURKA ROMPS BY 13
Trainer Ronald Glorioso hadn’t won a race at Parx Racing all year before yesterday. And Mirkamurka, a four-year-old Street Boss filly he trains, had just one win from 22 career starts.
You can put both those streaks to bed.
In a $7,500 claiming race for horses that had never won twice yesterday at Parx, Mirkamurka, the 5-2 second choice, broke alertly under jockey Jose Flores, led by a half-length after an opening quarter mile in 22.59 seconds, and widened her advantage at every subsequent call. She stopped the timer in a sharp 1:10.73 while 13 clear of runner-up Lucky Greatness.
In comparison, second-level allowance runners in the eighth — theoretically much faster animals — took 1:10.60 to navigate the same distance.
The win gives Mirkamurka, also owned by Glorioso, who claimed her for $16,000 last July, two wins from 23 career starts and pushes her earnings above $56,000. In addition to the two wins, she’s been second or third 10 additional times.
Glorioso now has one win from 10 starts at Parx Racing in 2016.
ALSO…
- We called yesterday’s eighth at Parx “a wide open affair,” and that surely proved to be the case. The runner with the longest post-time odds — Crafty Concorde, at 39.40-1 — rallied from seventh to win by a half-length. Meanwhile, the favorite (Monty Haul) and second favorite (Bluegrass Chat) finished ninth and tenth, respectively. Crafty Concorde, ridden by Mychel Sanchez for trainer John Rodriguez, paid $80.80 to win and topped a $745 exacta and $2,740.10 trifecta.
LOOKING AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Musket Mary (3-1) failed as the 4-5 favorite last out against starter allowance foes at Parx Racing — the region’s only track running today — finishing sixth and never really getting involved. The Michael Moore trainee will try to make amends today against similar competition in a six-furlong test that’s race five; she’ll have regular rider Chuck Lopez in the saddle, and be dialing back to a six furlong distance she likes (9-4-3-1 record). But it won’t be easy; the top pair from that recent defeat — Miss Lauren Ann (5-1) and Spring Flower (7-2) both are back to try their hands again. Spring Flower, a seven-year-old veteran of 59 starts, has earned nearly $400,000.
- Trainer Miguel Penaloza, who has won with six of his 14 starters so far in 2016, sends out one of his star pupils in race eight, a seven-furlong starter allowance for horses that have started for a $25,000 tag or less and either not won an allowance race or never won four. Penaloza claimed Benny’s Diamond (5-2), a four-year-old Benny the Bull filly, from Marcos Zulueta for $25,000 and has won two straight with her, including a $51,000 allowance contest, and is the only runner here to have won an allowance event (she qualifies for the race under the “never won four” condition). Among the rivals she’ll face is former barn-mate Streethomealabama (5-1), a Marcos Zulueta trainee who last out beat much weaker competition by 16 lengths.
