Yesterday and today: June 15 racing highlights
Monster Sleeping won an allowance at Laurel Park on April 3. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: GLOVES OFF COMES OUT SWINGING
Gloves Off finished just ahead of Viva La Kid in their last meeting, on May 23.
But bettors gave their bucks to the latter, making the John Servis trainee the 4-5 favorite in a six-horse, maiden special weight field at Parx Racing Tuesday afternoon. Gloves Off, meanwhile, was the 2.60-1 second choice.
Make that two for Gloves Off. The three-year-old U S Ranger colt, a Pennsylvania-bred, notched a two-length victory over Viva La Kid to break his maiden. It was another 9 1/2 lengths back to Machu Picchu Sky in third.
Gloves Off, a Tony Dutrow trainee, stalked the early pace of Jackie’s Garden, took over near the three-eighths pole, and repulsed a challenge from the runner-up en route to the win. With Alex Cintron in the irons, Gloves Off stopped the clock in 1:39.67 for a flat mile on the main track.
He was bred by EQB, Inc. and is owned by Houyhnhnm Stable. He has a win and two seconds from six starts with purse earnings of $68,580.
BY THE NUMBERS
- HANDLE:
- Parx Racing: $2,143,186
- CLAIMS:
- Parx Racing: 6
- MULTIPLE WINNERS
- Jockey Frankie Pennington won two races at Parx.
LOOK AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Cuppa Mocha Mojo (9-5), last year’s Cavada winner on West Virginia Breeders Classics night, makes her first start since in the seventh race at Charles Town Wednesday evening, a $24,500 allowance test going 6 1/2 furlongs. The David Walters trainee is the slight favorite over Ollie Figgins’ runner, Calipepla (2-1). Cuppa Mocha Mojo won the first five starts of her career and has never been worse than third in eight tries; she owns six wins and boasts earnings of more than $161,000. The five-year-old daughter of Mikimoto’s Mojo, bred in West Virginia by owner Terri Catlett, will have Jose Montano in the irons; Montano has ridden her to all six of her wins without a defeat.
- Moon River (3-1), who won the Virginia-bred Jamestown Stakes at first asking in 2014 but has yet to register a second victory, returns to action as the tepid morning line favorite in a $36,000 allowance going five furlongs on the lawn that’s race seven at Delaware Park. The Jonathan Sheppard trainee, bred in Virginia by William Backer, has had some tough near-misses since, among them a second in the Texas Glitter Stakes at Gulfstream last year, and will have Keiber Coa in the irons; last out, Moon River stumbled and lost Coa early. Prominent rivals here include Vittorioso (4-1) for trainer Larry Jones and owners Fletcher and Carolyn Gray — the connections behind I’m a Chatterbox.
