Yesterday and today: July 9 racing highlights
Struth and Demon Buster slug it out. Photo by The Racing Biz.
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: PLEASANT MINE IMPRESSES ON DEBUT
St Elias Stable’s Pleasant Mine made a very nice impression in her debut Friday at Monmouth Park, taking the day’s $36,000 maiden special weight opener by open lengths under leading rider Paco Lopez.
Trained by Anthony Margotta Jr., Pleasant Mine stopped the clock in a solid 1:41.75 for the mile and seventy yards on the fast main track and paid $9.60, $3.60 and $2.60. Delay of Game, the 4-5 favorite, was three lengths back, completing the $20.40 exacta and paying $2.40 and $2.10. It was just a nose back to Preppy, who paid $3.40 to show.
Anthony Margotta Jr. is now 5-for-6 on the year with first-time starters.
The winner, a 3-year-old filly by Mineshaft out of the Pleasant Tap mare Pleasant Lyrics , was a $440,000 yearling purchase.
[su_divider top=”no” style=”double” size=”9″]BY THE NUMBERS
- HANDLE:
- Charles Town: $774,625
- Monmouth Park: $2,029,208
- Penn National: $766,450
- CLAIMS:
- Charles Town: 1
- Monmouth Park: 4
- Penn National: 2
- MULTIPLE WINNERS
- JOCKEYS
- Jonathan Gonzales, 2 wins at Monmouth
- Paco Lopez, 2 wins at Monmouth
- Roberto Alvarado, Jr., 2 wins at Monmouth
- TRAINERS
- Jorge Navarro, 2 wins at Monmouth
- Flint Stites, 2 wins at Penn National
- JOCKEYS
LOOK AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Tracks in action today: Monmouth Park, Parx Racing, Delaware Park, Laurel Park, Penn National, and Charles Town.
- Check out our full-card handicapping of Laurel Park in The GQ Approach. The GQ Approach delivered a flat-bet profit last week, as well as three doubles worth a combined total of over $620.
- Monmouth Park’s feature today is the $100,000 Long Branch Stakes, the last local prep for the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational. We’ve got full-card handicapping of the Monmouth program, including the Long Branch, in today’s edition of Shore Bets, which has been hitting at an insanely high rate in recent weeks.
- Four stakes are on tap at Delaware Park today.
- Eighth Wonder is an undefeated speedster looking making her first foray into graded company in the G3 Delaware Oaks.
- But Dark Nile, with three wins from four starts, is one of a solid group of fillies that will have something to say about that.
- The undercard stakes include the G3 Robert G. Dick Memorial, an interesting turf route for distaff runners, and two $50,000 events.
- Wonder-horse, and fan favorite, Ben’s Cat headlines the G3 Parx Dash today, hoping to bounce back from a disappointing third-place finish in the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup last out and facing a salty field here.
- Check out our podcast with Derby Bill Watson to get his picks from the Parx Dash, Delaware Oaks, Dick Memorial — and the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, too!
