By Dick Jerardi
No clouds, sun shining, mid-70s, a perfect mid-October Saturday at Parx Racing.
Three new Parx Hall of Fame members, the M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile and five competitive National Thoroughbred League (NTL) races, with sports celebrities crowding the Cotillion Room, calling riders up in the paddock and gracing the winner’s circle.
When you have a celebration of career achievements after races 2, 3 and 4, a stakes in race 5 that ends up with a four-horse photo, super competitive NTL races as the last half of the card and Julius Erving, co-owner of the Philadelphia Stallions NTL team, in his first visit to Parx, you have a day to remember.
The Parx 2024 HOF Class includes one special horse whose career spanned eight years, one great announcer who was there when the track opened and one loyal Parx employee who has been at the track for three decades.
Ruby Bleu raced 100 times in his amazing career. He finished first 23 times, with 18 seconds and 18 thirds. The horse raced all over, but Parx where he raced 78 times was really his home.
Donnie Brown and Brian Shyda bred Ruby Bleu and raced him briefly before the horse got claimed for the first of 11 times. Parx trainer Joe Taylor had the most success with Ruby Bleu, but everybody who had him won with him. Brown claimed him back near the end of his career and is happy to report that Ruby Bleu, now 10, is happily retired in Ocala, Fla.
“When you breed horses, you don’t expect anything like this,” Brown said. “It’s just very flattering and I just feel so good for the horse and the people connected to him.”
There is no better testament to the Pennsylvania breeding program than Ruby Bleu. Brown got $330,560.32 in Breeders Awards and $75,140 in Stallion Awards during the horse’s career.
“That mailbox money will really brighten your day and it’s kept us in the program.” Brown said. “Have a few mares now. Had a stallion Warrior’s Reward at one time. We just retired him to Old Friends in Kentucky. The Pennsylvania breeders’ program when you breed a horse is very rewarding if that horse can win.”
Jack Lamar called the races at what was then known as Keystone Race Track when it opened Nov. 4, 1974. He remained at the track for more than a decade and was still calling the races when the name was changed to Philadelphia Park.
Lamar was a pro’s pro, prepared, precise, accurate, missing no details. Which was why he was ready for the moment of his career when Broad Brush, running in the 1986 Pennsylvania Derby, went from first on the far turn, to last after failing to turn left at the top of the stretch, to first again at the finish line.
At one point Lamar was the regular announcer at four different tracks – Liberty Bell, Garden State Park, Dover Downs and Marlboro.
Lamar was represented Saturday at the track by many of his family members, including daughter Gail and sons Greg and Gary.
“It’s a real honor because he really loved the track, he loved horse racing,” Greg Lamar said.
Greg said he and some of his siblings sometimes watched the races with their father from his booth.
When the track changed to a new production company in 1992, Rich Romano was hired as a camera operator. Fast forward 32 years and that was Romano in the winner’s circle being honored for his service as one of the most respected and talented employees in the history of the track. It was hard to fit everybody in the picture with so many colleagues crowding around his family members.
Romano went from the camera to Director of Broadcast Operations at Parx. He oversees the entire production staff as well as the technical engineers. He ran The Racing Network (TRN), a wonderful, if short lived, concept.
More than anything, Romano has been a friend to everybody who has worked with him or for him. If you need something done, he will find a way to make it happen.
“I’ve worked with a lot of great people over the years,” Romano said. “I know I get this award, but I owe it to a lot of the people I worked with for so many years.”
The Ballezzi, honoring the late PTHA executive director, could not have been more exciting, Concealed Carry led all the way, but in the final yards, Celestial Moon, Irish Cork and Magic Michael were all closing fast. In the end, Concealed Carry won it by a neck over Celestial Moon who was a nose in front of Irish Cork who finished a neck ahead of Magic Michael.
Dexter Haddock rode the winner for owners Branjam Stable and Dave Clark. Lou Linder, on pace for a possible third consecutive year with $2 million in earnings, trains the winner.
“He needs his trip and he got the easy lead,” Linder said. “Nobody harassed him and it was just enough to hang on.”
The back end of Saturday’s card featured some of the best horses on the grounds, an incredible visitor from Laurel Park (Freedom Road winning his seventh consecutive race by a combined 33 lengths) and all those sports celebrities who are associated with the NTL and really made the day feel big time.
All in all, a fascinating Saturday, the second to last of the year. There will be live racing on Nov. 2, Breeders’ Cup Saturday, which just happens to come two days before the track’s 50th anniversary.