Yesterday and today: June 29 racing highlights
A.P. Indian, here winning the 2015 Donald LeVine Memorial at Parx Racing, repeated on Saturday. Photo By Barb Weidl/EQUI-PHOTO
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: LIKE A LION IMPRESSES IN MAIDEN WIN
Like a Lion hadn’t been worse than third in five career starts prior to yesterday — but the sophomore Maryland-bred filly hadn’t won yet, either.
The latter streak came to an end yesterday in impressive fashion when the daughter of Great Notion blazed to a 10 1/2 length victory in a five furlong maiden special weight event run over a muddy, sealed track at Parx Racing. The race originally had been scheduled for the turf but was moved to the main track.
Under Jorge Vargas, Jr., Like a Lion, the 6-5 post time favorite, broke sharply to the lead, was in front by a half-length in the opening stages, and extended her advantage readily after the quarter pole. She led by one length after the opening three-eighths. Running time for the five furlongs was a sharp 58.23 seconds.
Like a Lion is owned and trained by Silvio Martin. She was bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman and their daughter, Rebecca Davis.
[su_divider top=”no” style=”double” size=”9″]BY THE NUMBERS
- HANDLE:
- Parx Racing: $2,085,073
- CLAIMS:
- Parx Racing: 3
- MULTIPLE WINNERS
- TRAINERS
- Howard Brown, Jr., 2 wins at Parx
- Patricia Farro, 2 wins at Parx
LOOK AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Tracks in action today: Delaware Park, Penn National, and Charles Town.
- Just six are slated to run in Delaware Park’s sixth race, a $38,000 allowance contest going 1 mile 70 yards on the main track — but it’s an awfully solid group. Flash McCaul (9-5), second in three stakes so far in his eight-race career and most recently fourth in the Federico Tesio in April at Laurel, is the morning line favorite and will have red-hot jock Trevor McCarthy (28 percent at Delaware) in the irons. But if the short price scares you away, you have plenty of options. One of the most interesting of those is Tisdale (4-1), the talented Friesan Fire colt who won twice at Oaklawn Park before disappointing in that track’s Northern Spur Stakes. Tisdale is one of three on the card for Churchill-based trainer Ron Moquett, who’ll also send out Piracy (5-2) in the eighth race.
- Speedster R C’s Daisyduke (8-5) is the morning line favorite for this evening’s seventh race at Charles Town, a $24,000 allowance contest for fillies and mares going 4 1/2 furlongs. The Yes It’s True sophomore, bred in West Virginia by Robert Cole, has been first or second in six of seven career starts and, remarkably, has been the favorite in all seven. Jockey Gerald Almodovar will ride for trainer Scott Lake. Her chief rival here looks to be Jeff Runco trainee Scarlet Emerald (5-2), an Oklahoma-bred (!) who finished just a length behind R C’s Daisyduke last out in her first try over the strip. She’ll have seven-pound apprentice Jan Batista in the irons.
- Kay’s Finesse (5-2) had a useful return to the races when second at Presque Isle Downs last out in his first start since November. The six-year-old Macho Uno gelding — he didn’t make the races until he was four — now owns six wins from 12 career starts and is favored in the fifth at Penn National this evening, a $30,400 allowance. Jeremy Rose will ride the Todd Beattie trainee. Top rivals here include Stitcher (3-1), who’s already won four times in 2016, and Powerful Sun (3-1).
