Beren returns in Page McKenney S. * The Racing Biz

Beren returns in Page McKenney S.

The Biz
April 25, 2022

Multiple stakes winner Beren will make his four-year-old debut in Monday’s Page McKenney Stakes at Parx Racing. The Page McKenney is one of two Pennsylvania-bred stakes on the card, which also includes the Unique Bella for fillies and mares.

The $100,000, seven-furlong Page McKenney has attracted a well-matched field of 10 runners. The morning line favorite is the Penny Pearce-trained I Am Redeemed (5-2). The four-year-old Redeemed colt won the Storm Cat Stakes, also for PA-breds, as a three-year-old. Most recently he registered a solid score in a second-level allowance.

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Beren won five stakes in a busy sophomore campaign. Those wins came at distances ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles and against both open and state-bred company. Trained by Butch Reid, Beren concluded his three-year-old season with a second-place finish in the Steel Valley Sprint at Mahoning Valley.

Beren is a colt by Weigelia out of the Diamond mare Silmaril. The Maryland-bred Silmaril earned over $1 million in her career, including a victory over the Hall of Famer Ashado in the 2005 Grade 3 Pimlico Breeders’ Cup Distaff Handicap. Beren was bred and is owned by Susan Quick and Christopher Feifarek.

Frankie Pennington will ride Beren, who leaves from the two-hole.

The field also includes defending champion Wait for It (9-2). The Ed Coletti trainee, a seven-year-old Uptowncharlybrown gelding, won a pair of PA-bred stakes last year and has 12 wins in his career.

In the $100,000 Unique Bella, Cinnabunny has been installed as the tepid 7-2 favorite. The Cal Lynch trainee scratched out of Saturday’s Primonetta Stakes at Laurel Park to await this contest.

A five-year-old Golden Lad mare, Cinnabunny, then trained by Brad Cox, was third by less than a length in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl in December 2020. Last year she won the Flashy Lady Stakes at Remington Park.

Jorge Ruiz will ride.

Claimed for $16,000, Page McKenney went on to win 22 races, two graded stakes, and nearly $2 million, most of it for trainer Mary Eppler and owners Adam Staple and Jalin Stable. A two-time Eclipse Award winner, Unique Bella won nine of 12 career starts, a pair of Grade 1 races, and nearly $1.3 million. She was trained by Jerry Hollendorfer for Don Alberto Stable.