By Dick Jerardi
Pennsylvania Derby Day can be many things to many people: a chance to party as summer comes to a close, a chance to get your horse a final prep race prior to the Breeders’ Cup, a chance last Saturday to gamble over 8 hours on a 15-race card with 143 horses and, as it turned out this Derby Day, a chance to see your horse do something that he or she was never able to do before.
Those seeking Grade I glory obviously love Parx in September. Like Baeza last year, The Puma had been chasing the nation’s best 3-year-olds in 2026 with just a win in the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby back on March 7 to show for it. And just like Baeza, The Puma made a powerful move on the far turn of the Pa. Derby that catapulted him to the lead and got that elusive Grade I with a half-length win over favored Further Ado, the exact same finish from the TB Derby.
The Puma got a career-best 103 Beyer figure. Further Ado closed relentlessly. Even though he did not get there, he was clearly back to his best spring form. Trainer Gustavo Delgado, known best for Mage’s win in the 2023 Kentucky Derby, got his fourth North American Grade I after many in Venezuela. It was, in fact, a major Venezuelan winner’s circle celebration with Delgado, jockey Javier Castellano, a Venezuela native, and dozens more.
It was Castellano’s third Pa. Derby win – Timber Reserve (2007), Connect (2016), tying him with Mike Smith for most all-time. It was also Castellano who strongly suggested The Puma needed blinkers after he finished fourth in the Travers. The trainer listened and they both got to celebrate.
In 2019, Saffie Joseph won his first Grade I when John Fanelli’s Math Wizard won the Pennsylvania Derby. In 2026, Joseph, now firmly established as one of the nation’s top trainers (1,324 wins, $89 million in purses in the 2020s), won his first Cotillion with the recently acquired Bodacious Bay. He is just the eighth trainer to win both of Parx’s signature races. And he joins a very decorated list that includes Woody Stephens, Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, Doug O’Neill, Richard Small and Frank Alexander.
It was just the fifth career start for Bodacious Bay who took serious money in the final seconds. She was 9-1 in the gate, went off at 5-1 and absolutely dominated the race, sitting just behind pace setting stablemate My Miss Mo (who won the Monmouth Oaks with Bodacious Bay second), opened a nice lead in the stretch and ran away from 4-5 favorite and Kentucky Oaks winner Always a Runner in the final 100 yards to win by 3 1/4 lengths. She got a career-best 93 Beyer.
Young jockey Micah Husbands, with just 163 North American wins, got his fourth Grade I win this year at four different tracks (also Santa Anita, Oaklawn Park, Kentucky Downs) for Joseph, all on fillies or mares. The trainer obviously believes in the jockey and he keeps getting proven right.
Three of the best performances of the day belonged to the home team and none was better than Pennsylvania bred Wild Vine’s wild turn run to blow open the $300,000 Parx Dirt Mile for trainer Jamie Ness and jockey Yedsit Hazlewood. It was the biggest win by purse money in Ness’s career which will end 2026 with a seventh consecutive Parx training title.
Ness has claimed thousands of horses, but the $55,000 he put up for Wild Vine on Feb. 28, 2025 at Laurel Park has to be one of his best. Since then, the now 7-year-old has won six races and $448,620. Sent off at 9-1, he got a 96 Beyer in the Dirt Mile, beating 1-2 favorite Bracket Buster by 2 lengths. Bracket Buster was a bit unlucky on the turn as jockey John Velazquez had nowhere to go. By the time the favorite got loose, Wild Vine was long gone.
The wonderful Buccherino has run on Pa. Derby each of the last three years. He finished third in the 2024 Gallant Bob, won the Parx Sprint last year and won the Stable Recovery this year. The horse is tough and relentless and won for the ninth time in 21 starts. Parx Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Velazquez was very emotional in the winner’s circle, calling Buccherino, with career earnings of $614,940, his favorite horse.
Velazquez thought he had the Gallant Bob winner this year in the super fast Shane’s Wonder. And he may have been right as winner Stradale got just a 91 Beyer, a number that Shane’s Wonder, were he not been out of training for a while with an injury, certainly could have earned.
Flint Stites got the vast majority of his 2,262 wins at Penn National, his home base. But he ventures to Parx enough that we can call him part of the home team on the big days. And, like Velazquez, he was very emotional when Icona Mama stormed home in the Liberty Bell, saying it was the first time he ever heard fans chanting his name while in a winner’s circle.
Trainer Brendan Walsh, a regular on Pa. Derby Day won the Cotillion last year with Clicquot. This year, his San Siro absolutely blew away the field in the Greenwood Cup, with 3-5 favorite Parchment Party a non-threatening second.
Two trainers won two races on the card, Saffie Joseph also winning the Philly Special with U Lite Up My Life and Butch Reid winning race 6 with Divine Seeker and race 15 with Coach Bennett, named for owner Glenn Bennett’s father, the longtime baseball coach at Villanova. Paco Lopez, who continues to lead the country with 274 wins with just 100 days left in the year, was the only jockey to win two races, the fifth on Band Camp and the Philly Special with U Lite Up My Life.
Bottom line, another great Pennsylvania Derby Day with perfect weather, fans everywhere, competitive racing, some of America’s top trainers and jockeys and several career-changing performances on the track.
