By Dick Jerardi
Craig Donnelly has been around the racetrack for more than a half century. Renowned as one of America’s greatest public handicappers, whose selections were gold for decades in the “Philadelphia Inquirer” and who approached a race for beaten claimers with the same zeal the rest of us might bring to the Kentucky Derby, Donnelly, aka Craig Harris (son of legendary horse racing writer/handicapper Russ Harris), was overcome with emotion after the ninth race on July 18 at Parx.
And why wouldn’t he be. The 3-year-old colt he bred and co-owns, Ponder and Dream, had just overwhelmed the field in the $100,000 Lil E Tee Stakes, winning by 14 3/4 lengths, running the mile and 70 yards in 1:43.28 and earning a 92 Beyer speed figure.
“I have to tell you, I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of races, I’ve made bets, and I don’t really get nervous,” Donnelly said. “When you have a horse that you watched grow up, I got the mare when she got hurt, and you see him turn in a race like that. I was a Nervous Nellie, to be honest with you. It chokes me up. It’s one of the biggest thrills I’ve ever had in the game.”
And that from somebody who has been in the game since 1969.
“His mother went 9-for–21 and they gave her to me,” Donnelly said. “I thought I’ll try breeding again. This is the second foal out of that mare, and he’s just amazing.”
That performance put Ponder and Dream squarely in the conversation to become the first Parx-based horse to win the Pennsylvania Derby in 30 years. It was 1996 when the Noreen Carpenito-owned, Walter Reese-trained and Tony Black-ridden Devil’s Honor won the Pa. Derby. In a career of great rides, that Derby was one of Black’s best.
The emerging, but inexperienced Formal Gold was the favorite that year. But Black knew what Formal Gold’s jockey Mike Smith did not. The rail was a paved highway that day at Parx so Black put Devil’s Honor on that rail and it carried horse and jockey all the way to the winner’s circle.
Formal Gold challenged in the stretch, but Black and Devil’s Honor, who had won two stakes the year before and had been running in top stakes around the country in 1996, rode the inside and his experience to the Pa. Derby win.
Formal Gold proved the next year to be one of the best horses of the 1990s, with Beyer figures of 126, 124, 126 and 122 in races like the Woodward, Iselin and Donn. Devil’s Honor raced 44 times with 10 wins, six seconds and eight thirds, a solid career, but nothing like Formal Gold’s. But on that Labor Day in 1996, with the right jockey employing the right tactics, it was Devil’s Honor all the way.
So can Ponder and Dream, trained at Parx by Butch Reid, win the 2026 Pa. Derby. Well, unlike 1996, this is not a very fast group of stakes 3-year-olds. There is no Formal Gold lurking. So, if Ponder and Dream can improve just a little bit more, he absolutely will have a chance to win the $1 million Grade I Pa. Derby on Sept. 19. By the way, the purse 30 years ago for the Grade III Pa. Derby? $200,000.
First things first. Ponder and Dream is the likely favorite in next Tuesday’s $200,000 Grade III Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx. As in all nine of his races, the colt will be ridden by Parx’s perennial leading jockey Mychel Sanchez, who just got win No. 2,000. Win the Smarty in style and Ponder and Dream will be back in 32 days with a realistic chance in Parx’s signature race.
Ponder and Dream was a nice 2-year-old, but blew up this year when he started running two turns. His allowance win on May 12 was the announcement when he went gate to wire and got an 86 Beyer. After that race, prominent Parx owner Glenn Bennett purchased a share of Ponder and Dream.
Put a line through the June 13 Delaware Derby when van issues were a serious problem on the way to the race (took them an hour to get the horse on the van) and a disastrous speed duel during the race compromised whatever chances the colt had that day.
After his final breeze before the Smarty, a half mile work Monday morning, Reid said: “he came out of his last race perfectly, he’s improving as the year goes on.”
In the two route races where Ponder and Dream has gotten a clear lead, the colt absolutely looked a winner from the start. How good can Ponder and Dream become? Don’t know, but we are about to find out.
And by the way, that mother of Ponder and Dream, Spanky, is by To Honor and Serve, the winner of the 2011 Pennsylvania Derby. Just saying.
