By Dick Jerardi
The snow has disappeared for good (I think). The Final Four and the Masters are over. Baseball season has begun. The NBA and NHL playoffs are on deck. And, thankfully, so is the stakes season at Parx Racing.
From next Wednesday April 22 until New Year’s Eve, there are 38 stakes on the schedule (23 open, 15 for Pennsylvania breds, some of which are for Pa. bred and Pa. sired horses).
It begins with two $100,000 6-furlong stakes for Pa. breds, the Page McKenney for males and the Unique Bella for females. The $75,000 Wait For It is also scheduled for the same day, but with just 11 nominations and the spectre of unbeaten Shane’s Wonder likely in the entry box, there is a chance not enough horses will be entered to make it go.
That will be no issue with the other two stakes. The noms for the Page McKenney include such Parx mainstays as Gordian Knot, Maximus Meridius, Ninetyprcentmaddie and Twisted Ride. Those four horses have combined to earn nearly $2.8 million. The Unique Bella has such familiar names as Disco Ebo, Carmelina, Confirmed Star, Pachelbel and Aoife’s Magic among the nominees. Those five are also right around $2.8 million in career earnings.
Pa. Day at the Races on Saturday, July 18 will include four $100,000 stakes for Pa. breds, the Banjo Picker, Storm Cat, Dr. Teresa Garofalo Memorial and Lil E. Tee.
After the August break, Pennsylvania Derby preview day will be loaded on Tuesday August 18 with the $200,000 Smarty Jones, $200,000 Cathryn Sophia as well as the $75,000 Mayor’s Mile, State Representative Sprint and PTHA President’s Sprint, races that will serve as preps for stakes to be run on Pa. Derby Day itself.
Two $75,000 Pa. bred/Pa. Sired stakes will be run on Labor Day Monday Sept. 7, the Imply and Prince Lucky.
Pennsylvania Derby Day gets bigger (and more important nationally) every year. Way too early obviously to have any idea of which horses might be coming to Parx, but the best news is, if everything goes right with the installation now underway, there will be a brand new Turf Course to showcase on Saturday, Sept. 19.
So the $250,000 Grade III Turf Monster will return as part of a card that will feature nine stakes. In addition to the $1 million Grade I Pa. Derby and $1 million Grade I Cotillion, the Grade II $400,000 Gallant Bob, $300,000 Parx Dirt Mile, $150,000 Greenwood Cup and $150,000 Liberty Bell return. New this year will be the $150,000 Philly Special and $150,000 Stable Recovery Stakes. It will be a not-to-be missed 8-hour extravaganza from 11 am to 7 pm.
Two Pa. bred/Pa. sired stakes are scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 13. The M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile goes Tuesday, Oct. 20. The Jump Start and Disco Chick are scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 10.
Lots of “Eves” coming up in November and December. Five Stakes, three open, two for Pa. breds, will be run Wednesday Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving. The open stakes are the Turkey Trot, Let’s Give Thanks and Cornucopia. The Pennsylvania Nursery and Shamrock Rose are for state breds.
Two stakes for 2-year-olds, the Future Stars and Future Stars Fillies, will go on Thursday, December 24. A week later, on New Year’s Eve, the year and the stakes season will end with the Kris Kringle, Blitzen and Mrs. Claus.
We all somehow survived the winter and the best part of the racing season is just around the corner. And you never really know what you will see and, in some cases, what it might mean even as you are seeing it.
After all, who was thinking that the 2025 Pa. Derby runner-up Magnitude would win the 2026 Dubai World Cup? Or that 2025 Gallant Bob winner Mad House would win last Saturday’s Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park. Or that 2025 Ballezzi winner Point Dume would win the 2026 Carter Stakes at Aqueduct.
But it all happened. Now, the 2026 stakes schedule is upon us and we shall see what will happen when they run the races and might happen later with all those horses that run in all those races.
