By Dick Jerardi
Every horse has a story. All of them are interesting, some are fascinating, a few are interesting, fascinating and heartwarming.
Fenton Forever qualified for everything, especially heartwarming. After the 2-year-old colt won The $100,000 Wait For It Stakes for Pennsylvania breds, the first of seven stakes at Parx on Monday, Dec. 30 and Tuesday, Dec. 31, there were a few tears shed in the paddock winner’s circle. The colt, now 2-for-2, is named for the late John Fenton, a friend to everybody on the Parx backstretch.
Kendrick Carmouche rode the winner for owner/breeder Desmond Wynter and trainer Tyler Servis.
“My old friend Fenton, I’m sure he was there riding with me just as he was there with (Jorge) Vargas first time out,” an emotional Carmouche said. “He was from Jamaica. He was pretty much on this backside all his life. He was a good friend.”
Carmouche will win his 4,000th race sometime in 2025. This win, his last of 2024, was very special.
“Fenton touched a lot of people on the backside,” Carmouche said. “He was a really good friend of mine. He was older than me so he guided me to do the right things whenever I was on the backside and how to conduct myself being a young guy.”
Wynter was equally emotional.
“This means the world to me,” he said. “This horse when he was young, I wanted to name him after this good friend of mine, John Fenton. He means a lot to me. He was on the track for years, great buddy.”
Fenton Forever’s dam, Fairy Gray, has been very good for Wynter. She is also the mother of Gray Lightning, the very fast filly he sold earlier this year for $370,000.
It was win No. 101 for Servis who is finishing off the best year (29 wins, 25 percent winners) of his six-year career.
“Everybody was very fond of (Fenton),” Servis said. “Always loved me. Every time I used to ride by on my bike or in my car, he would always yell to me, and we would have a couple of good talks together.”
None of the four Monday winners was more impressive on the off track than Hollywood Beauty in the $75,000 Parx Future Stars Filly Division. The 2-year-old filly went to the front under top Parx jockey Mychel Sanchez and blew the field away, winning by 8 1/4 lengths at 15-1.
Trainer Marya Montoya had the filly for just a month prior to the race after previous trainer Jacinto Solis had the filly for owner Albert Lupcho, Jr. in her first four races.
“It was an old owner I had 10 years ago, a good friend of my father’s,” Montoya said.
Montoya is, of course, the daughter of the late Parx Hall of Fame trainer Dennis Heimer.
“I started working around the barn when I was 8-years-old,” she said. “By the time I was 15, I was galloping horses out in the field so I really had a lot of hands on with him. This is the type of horse he would love…I learned a lot from him.”
The race did not go as planned, but worked out just fine.
“The strategy was to sit off the pace,” Montoya said. “There was a lot of speed and make a run.”
Turned out Hollywood Beauty was the speed and made the only run that mattered at the very start.
Honorable Win’s victory in the $100,000 Miss Behaviour Stakes was a family affair that goes back generations. The Pa. Bred 2-year-old filly is by Winchill who raced for trainer Kate DeMasi and was co-owned by DeMasi and husband Greg’s Pewter Stable. She is out of Honorable Partner who raced for DeMasi. Honorable Partner was out of Tuff Partners who was out of Tj’s Tuff as Nails. All raced for DeMasi.
“I’ve trained the whole family so it’s really kind of cool,” DeMasi said.
The 7-2 Honorable Win sat off the early speed duel under rider Eliseo Ruiz, caught up on the turn and then ran away from 3-5 favorite Double Airo in the stretch to win by 4 3/4 lengths,
“I think this one touched the heart a little bit because I kind of had the plan all along to run in this series,” DeMasi said.
So the trainer waited 2 1/2 months from her previous start because she is thinking ahead to the spring, the family’s affinity for grass and the fact that she thinks the filly will like longer distances.
“When a plan comes together, it’s so amazing,” DeMasi said. “I am just thrilled that everything worked out.”
No owners at Parx have put more money into trying to win major races than Glenn Bennett’s LC Racing and Chuck Zacney’s Cash Is King. It’s still early, but there is a chance they have a good one for 2025 in Global Steve who made a giant middle move to win the $75,000 Parx Future Stars for trainer Butch Reid and jockey Mychel Sanchez. The margin was 1 1/2 lengths at the wire, but the race itself was much more visually impressive than the margin.
“He looks like he’s the real deal,” Bennett said. “Very exciting. Obviously, you’re always hoping they’re going to be a big time horse until you find out they’re not. We did not find out he’s not yet so hopefully it continues.”
Global Steve made a similar huge move in his debut, an overwhelming 6 1/2-length win.
“That’s fun to watch,” Bennett said. “Real encouraging. Mychel said he had plenty left so we’ll see.”
Bennett and Zacney bought the colt for $60,000 at Timonium in May. He is a half brother to $500,000 earner Cagliostro. The colt has not run particularly fast yet, but there will be time for better times in 2025.
Zacney and Bennett had an offer to sell Global Steve, but they turned it down.
“Chuck and I definitely like to keep them, we’re in it to win it,” Bennett said.
Monday was for the 2-year-olds, Tuesday for two groups of very good older males and one spectacular 3-year-old filly who finished off a terrific year in style.
Offaly Cool had been away from the races for 11 months when he entered the starting gate in the $75,000 Kris Kringle. The horse had been a $30,000 claim nearly two years earlier for owner Larry Rebbecchi and trainer Jacinto Solis. The horse had won nearly $200,000 in 10 starts for them. But surgery for a bone chip in his knee at the New Bolton Center kept the horse on the sidelines since Jan. 30.
“We would like to have had a race to get him prepped,” Rebbecchi said.
Turned out Offaly Cool needed no prep. Under a perfectly timed ride by Abner Adorno, the horse came up the rail with the last move to catch 10-1 Movistor just before the wire and win it by a half-length. The paddock winner’s circle was jammed with Offaly Cool true believers.
“I’m always nervous, but he likes to close like that,” Rebbechi said. “We’re very blessed to have him, we’re very blessed he’s back healthy.”
Nelson Avenue came down from New York for the $75,000 Blitzen after some solid wins and a strong second in the Forty Niner Stakes. He was sent off at 6-5 for trainer Wayne Potts and owner Photo Finish LLC. Jose Lezcano also came down from New York for the ride. And when Lexcano came to Parx in 2024, he usually ended up getting his picture taken. It was no different with Nelson Avenue who went right to the front and won by 11 1/4 lengths. With the win, Lezcano upped his Parx 2024 mark to eight wins in just 22 starts.
“I’m very grateful I get the opportunity to ride these kinds of horses,” Lezcano said.
Irish Maxima showed great promise as a 2-year-old for owners Irish Three Racing and trainer John Servis. She fulfilled that promise as a 3-year-old, saving her best race for last on the final day of the year.
After taking the lead out of the gate in the $75,000 Mrs. Claus, 1-2 Irish Maxima had the race under total control. The filly won by even more than Nelson Avenue – 13 3/4 lengths and the times of the 7-furlong races were separated by one one-hundredth of a second.
It was win No. 3,096 in jockey Frankie Pennington’s career. Few have been easier.
“John did an amazing job with her,” Pennington said. “She came into the race phenomenal. When she broke and she was just dragging me the whole way, I was like ‘I wish they were all like this.'”
How good is Irish Maxima who was purchased as a 2-year-old for $50,000 and is $75 shy of $300,000 in career earnings.
“She’s so amazing, she’s such a classy filly,” Pennington said. “Not only can she be on the lead, she can sit. She drags you the whole way. When she’s dragging you, she’s doing it easy, just waiting for you to tell her to go.”
And, with that, the final card of 2024 was one race from being done. So it’s on to 2025.
