By Dick Jerardi
When you have been off for three weeks, you want to return with a showcase. That is precisely what will go down Saturday and Monday at Parx Racing, first with Smarty Jones Day featuring six stakes worth $725,000 and then with Pennsylvania Day at the Races, an all PA Bred 11-race card with four stakes and total purses of $870,000.
The final four stakes Saturday will be shown live (3-5 pm) on NBC Sports Philadelphia, a telecast that will be framed around the 20th anniversary of Smarty Jones’s historic run to within 1 length of the 2004 Triple Crown.
All of the horses entered won’t run (some are in stakes at other tracks, others are main track only in grass races) but, after entries, Saturday’s stakes include horses that have combined to win 178 races and earn $9,672,689. Monday’s stakes feature horses that have combined for 82 wins and $8,695,238 in earnings.
The $200,000 Smarty Jones includes Ohio Derby runner-up Gould’s Gold from the Ken McPeek barn and Catalytic, a distant second to Fierceness in the Florida Derby for trainer Saffie Joseph who is third nationally in wins (174) and eighth in earnings ($9.2 million). McPeek, of course, won the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby this year.
Uncle Heavy gets a chance to race on his home track for the first time in 2024. If he can come back to his Withers-winning form, he is certainly a contender for Butch Reid. Just Step On It, from the Lou Linder barn, was most recently a solid fourth in the Haskell behind 3-year-old division leader Dornoch.
Black Eyed Susan winner Gun Song and three times graded stakes placed Impel (also entered in Friday’s Charles Town Oaks) are likely to vie for favoritism in the $200,000 Cathryn Sophia.
The other four stakes are the $75,000 Salvatore M. DeBunda Sprint, the $100,000 Parx Dash (the field has 49 wins among them with purse earnings of nearly $2 million), the $75,000 Mayor’s Mile and the $75,000 State Representative’s Sprint.
The Parx Dash at 5 furlongs on the grass, could be the race of the day, with differing running styles and such incredible accomplishments.
The Mayor’s Mile (Parx Dirt Mile), DeBunda (Gallant Bob), Parx Dash (Turf Monster), Cathryn Sophia (Cotillion) and Smarty Jones (Pennsylvania Derby) are all preps for the day of days at Parx on Sept. 21.
Boat’s a Rockin’ (13 wins), who will go in the Parx Dash, has the most victories of any horse racing in the Saturday stakes. Film Star ($508,101, Mayor’s Mile) and Golden Candy ($544,347, State Rep. Sprint) have each won more than a half million. Twisted Ride ($623,408, State Rep. Sprint) is going to run in the Grade I Forego Saturday at Saratoga.
Monday’s Marshall Jenney Handicap, Jump Start, Storm Cat and
Mrs. Penny are each worth $100,000. The card’s three allowance races are each worth $70,000 and the four maiden special weights go for $65,000 each.
The Jenny field has won an incredible 60 races with nearly $3 million in earnings. The amazing 9-year-old Smooth B for Butch Reid and Glenn Bennett’s LC Racing, will be making his 61st career start. The horse has been first, second or third 32 times with $833,447 in earnings.
Ninetyprcentmaddie (also Reid and Bennett) has earned more than a half million and graded stakes placed in New York in his last three starts, could be the favorite in the Jump Start.
Movistor (trainer Marya Montoya, Waldorf Racing) has run really well in open stakes this summer and now faces fellow state breds in the Storm Cat.
Morning Matcha would be a huge favorite in the Mrs. Penny if it came off the grass, but, if it stays on grass, it looks like the most wide open stakes of the two days.
Bottom line, celebrate the Pennsylvania legend that is Smarty Jones, enjoy all the great racing and look forward to the biggest national stage in September, Pennsylvania Derby Day.
