By Dick Jerardi
Tuesday’s eighth race went as a $55,000 optional claimer over 6 1/2 furlongs. In reality, it was much more like a stakes race, featuring the last three winners of the Page McKenney Handicap – Houghton Shuffle (2025), Far Mo Power (2024), and Twisted Ride (2023), not to mention Scaramouche, the winner of the 2022 Gallant Bob.
In all, the six horses had combined to win 10 stakes and $2.4 million, an average of $400,000 per horse. They had combined for 43 wins in 138 starts.
The race, run over a muddy, sealed track, absolutely lived up to its promise. Twisted Ride, in his second race of the year, broke on top, but was quickly joined by Scaramouche, who was making his first start in nearly 11 months. They raced together down the backstretch, with Houghton Shuffle a few lengths back to their outside and Far Mo Power close up along the inside, Bump N Run and One More Scoop trailing behind.
It stayed that way until the turn when David Cora made the first move on Houghton Shuffle, ranging up outside the leaders and taking the lead in the stretch. Paco Lopez, on Far Mo Power, had to wait for Cora to make the first move. When he did, he sent Far Mo Power outside the leaders, following Houghton Shuffle.
It really looked like Houghton Shuffle’s big move was going to win the race, but Far Mo Power was coming. Lopez had to switch his mount out slightly for clear room in the stretch. It still looked like Far Mo Power was not going to get there, but, in the final yards, with one final surge, 3-1 Far Mo Power passed 17-10 favorite Houghton Shuffle to win by a neck, with 12-1 Scaramouche third and 2-1 Twisted Ride fourth.
The 7-year-old Far Mo Power, purchased, according to trainer Lou Linder, out of a field as an unbroken 2-year-old by owner Joseph Sutton, now has a record of 26-10-3-6 with earnings of $574,958. His dam, J. D. Safari has produced several foals, including four that went a combined 1-for-58. Sutton and Linder hit the jackpot with this son of Uncle Lino, the sire of 403 winners, including other Parx mainstays One More Scoop, Mr. Sandman and Uncle Irish.
Far Mo Power is, by far, Uncle Lino’s best offspring and also by far the best horse Linder has ever trained. In addition to that, Page McKenney, Far Mo Power also won the 2022 Parx Dirt Mile on the same Pennsylvania Derby card when Scaramouche won the Gallant Bob. Far Mo Power was disqualified for interference that day, but was eventually awarded the win when Mind Control was later disqualified for a medication violation.
Mind Control, a winner of $2 million, came back in his next and final start to win the Cigar Mile. Far Mo Power just keeps coming back and back and back and when he is ready for his best, look out.
“He’s the horse everybody wants to come see,” Linder said. “He’s been so good to us. It’s just amazing when you get a horse like that in the barn.”
Bred in Pennsylvania by Peter Giangulio, Far Mo Power is the horse that just keeps on giving.
When asked what was going through his mind as he was watching the race, Linder said: “With Paco, he’s always got a race in his mind and I just left in his hands and he did it the right way.”
Like everybody else, Linder, who was given quite a nice birthday present, was not at all sure Far Mo Power was going to get there.
“Not really,” Linder said when asked if he thought he was going to get there in time. “The last few strides, I saw the other horse was maybe shortening up and we were still going on and just hoped he had enough. We just had enough.”
Just 26 starts since his debut on Nov. 22, 2021, late in his 3-year-old season, Far Mo Power has been handled to maximize his potential. And, from that 2-year-old in the field, has he ever done that.
“You go through this game trying to get one (like this),” Linder said. “When it’s there, you cherish it.”
That the race was named in honor of Lou Albertrani, who was the trainer of Sprint champion Artax and was working in the Parx racing office at the time of his death a year ago, only added to the moment for Linder.
“I’ve known Denise (Albertrani’s wife) since we were little kids,” Linder said. “It means a lot to win the race that honors him.”
