By Dick Jerardi
Not only does Parx have the nation’s biggest day of September racing every year, its top jockeys, trainers and owners regularly show up on the national end-of-year standings.
Pennsylvania Derby Day has stood the test of time in its now nearly 15-year run in late September. It would be hard to have a better advertisement for the day than last year with Cotillion winner Thorpedo Anna a likely Horse of the Year and the Pa. Derby 1-2 being Preakness winner Seize the Grey and Santa Anita Derby winner Stronghold.
Jamie Ness has won everywhere he’s been, but his stable has zoomed right into racing’s stratosphere since he became a Parx regular five years ago. Not only has he won five consecutive Parx training titles, his overall numbers have become so big that he is easy to spot in national standings.
Ness ended 2024 with 364 winners, second only to Steve Asmussen’s 407. A closer look reveals just how incredible Ness’s year really was. Asmussen got his 407 with 2,228 starts and 307 starters. Ness got his 364 with 1,432 starts and 307 starters. He won with 25 percent of his starters to Asmussen’s 18 percent.
Asmussen obviously has the stakes horses that Ness does not so the money earned was not close. Asmussen finished second to Chad Brown in earnings with $29.3 million. Still, Ness finished with $11.1 million in purse earnings, 13th best nationally, incredible for a trainer who does not have the stock to run in the big money races.
Mychel Sanchez, who has become the dominant jockey at Parx, would have given the track another second nationally if a few post Christmas days had not been lost to weather. He finished with 273 winners three behind Jose Ortiz who was second to his brother Irad who had 327 winners.
Sanchez got his 273 winners from 1,313 mounts, 49 fewer than Jose’s 1,362. Irad got his 327 from 1,549 mounts.
Like Ness, Sanchez could not compete for the top in purse earnings because he does not ride in the big money stakes. He finished 21st with $10.3 million. Irad had $32.9 million, second to Flavien Prat. Jose had a cool $26 million in mount earnings.
Trainer Butch Reid, who is closing fast on 1,000 wins, finished 50th nationally with $3.8 million in stable earnings, finishing off a incredible3-year run where his stable won $11.2 Million.
Jockey Eliseo Ruiz, who had 134 winners in 2024 and finished second to Sanchez in the Parx standings, was 60th nationally in earnings with $4.5 million.
Marty Shaw’s Top Notch Racing was top owner at Parx and finished 44th nationally with $1.8 million. The stable won 50 races at Parx and 66 overall from 352 starters in 2024.
Over the last two decades, after the slots bill passed in the post Smarty Jones euphoria, Parx Racing has steadily grown into what it has become, a track that has housed three Breeders’ Cup winners, a track with a huge national day of racing and a track with local players who are making major national impact.