Yesterday and today: July 26 racing highlights
Saratoga Jack. Photo By Barbara Weidl/EQUI-PHOTO
From Staff Reports
YESTERDAY’S NEWS: TWO STRAIGHT FOR JANINE MELNITZ
It took nine tries for Janine Melnitz to break her maiden.
Now she’s working on a different kind of streak.
The four-year-old Ghostzapper filly rallied from the rear of a tightly bunched field to win by three quarters of a length in a one mile 70 yard allowance test on the turf at Delaware Park yesterday. It was her second consecutive victory.
Virgo Rising led the field through a half-mile in 47.71 seconds and three quarters in 1:11.88, holding a half-length lead at each of those points. Meanwhile, Janine Melnitz, with Gabriel Saez up, was biding her time looking for running room as the field hit the head of the lane. Once a seam opened up, Janine Melnitz spurted through and opened a clear lead en route to the victory.
Janine Melnitz paid $16.40 to win. The exacta, with late-running favorite Royal Source underneath, paid $51.40. Pop Rocks Lady was third.
Janine Melnitz is trained by Francis Abbott, III for Sycamore Racing. Sycamore purchased her for $45,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic September Yearling Sale. She now has two wins from 10 starts and $82,460 in earnings.
[su_divider top=”no” style=”double” size=”9″]BY THE NUMBERS
HANDLE
- Delaware Park: $1,098,872
- Parx Racing: Canceled
CLAIMS
- Delaware Park: 4
MULTIPLE WINNERS
- None
LOOK AHEAD: TODAY’S RACING
- Tracks in action today: Parx Racing.
- Turf stakes winners Cali Thirty Seven (5-2), Notte d’Oro (7-2), and Monster Sleeping (4-1) headline a $60,000 allowance test this afternoon at Parx Racing. The one mile, grassy event has drawn a field of eight fillies and mares. Cali Thirty Seven, trained by Joe Orseno, took Gulfstream’s Powder Break Stakes back in April, besting a field that included Notte d’Oro, the Christophe Clement trainee who won a pair of stakes last year. Monster Sleeping, a Maryland-bred trained by Dale Capuano, has won the Maryland Million Ladies twice and earned over $520,000 in her career.
- She’s not the favorite, or even close to it, but maybe the most interesting runner in Parx Racing’s seventh, a $51,000 allowance race, is Hey Braciole (10-1). The Pennsylvania-bred Freud filly won at first asking, taking a maiden event over the strip on June 21. Hey Braciole, a homebred for Joe Capriglione, is out of the Lucky Lionel mare Pu Dew, who made over $400,000 on the racetrack the hard way: in 76 starts, mostly in claiming company. She’s trained by Patricia Farro. Miss Avalon (5-2), second against similar two back, is the morning line favorite.
