By Dick Jerardi
Jamie Ness and Mychel Sanchez have long ago clinched the 2025 trainer and jockey titles at Parx. With just a month left in a memorable season, they are also major forces in the national standings, Ness still holding off perennial wins leader Steve Asmussen for the top spot, and Sanchez, fourth nationally, just 16 wins short of his first 300-win season, a goal he set at the end of 2024.
Ness has 329 winners to 304 for Asmussen, with Brad Cox (261) third. Asmussen has 2,114 starts to Ness’s 1,302 and 584 starters to Ness’s 301, which puts Ness’s achievement in its proper context. He is not just doing it with volume; he is doing it with consistency.
“I am not (paying attention to the standings), but other people are,” Ness said. “He has a lot of horses and does a good job, and he can go on a hot streak, so we’ve got to keep our foot on the pedal at all times.”
Mike Pino (90 winners) is going to finish a strong second to Ness (118) in the Parx trainer standings, with Jacinto Solis (49 wins) third. Pino did not have the volume (283 starters) at Parx that Ness (494 starters) had, but his horses have been incredibly consistent all year long as demonstrated by his 32 percent winners at Parx. Ness is at 24 percent at the start of December.
Sanchez (284 wins) trails only Irad Ortiz (328), Paco Lopez (313) and Jose Ortiz (301) nationally. He is the runaway leader at Parx again with 186 winners. Lopez is second with 89 wins, Dexter Haddock (70) third and Abner Adorno fourth (66). Eliseo Ruiz, Frankie Pennington, Silvestre Gonzalez, Andy Hernandez and Melvis Gonzalez all have between 50 and 60 winners at Parx in 2025.
“I feel like I’ve got (the 300) now, but it’s not over so let’s make it happen,” said Sanchez who had his first six-win day (including four stakes) the day before Thanksgiving. “It’s not easy to set goals and stuff like that and to make them happen. Seeing it get closer and closer is pretty cool. It hasn’t hit me yet, but I know it’s going to hit me once we get it done.”
Sanchez is winning at a 29 percent clip at Parx, 22 percent overall. This Saturday, he will have a great chance at the biggest purse win of his career when he rides runaway maiden winner Parker Boone in the $500,000 Great White Way New York Stallion Series at Aqueduct. Owned by Chuck Zacney’s Cash Is King and Glenn Bennett’s LC Racing and trained by Butch Reid, Parker Boone has been the most impressive 2-year-old debut winner at Parx this year. It was not just that the colt won by 12 1/4 lengths on Nov. 4 and got a 77 Beyer, it was the ease with which he did it. If he beats this field like he did the one at Parx, look for him and stablemate Mailata in some open stakes next year.
If Parker Boone runs to expectations and Kappa Kappa runs back to her great Raven Run win on October 18 in Sunday’s $200,000 Grade III Gazelle Stakes, the Reid stable could have some weekend in Queens. Entries will be taken Wednesday, but Gazelle nominations include Mother Goose 1-2 Fully Subscribed and Drexel Hill as well as Fantasy Stakes winner Quietside and Parx-based Ourdaydreamingirl for trainer Lou Linder. John Velazquez, who rode Kappa Kappa to the stakes win at Keeneland, will be back to ride her in the Gazelle, which will be run at 9 furlongs.
