One of the biggest thoroughbred racing series of the year is the Road to the Triple from mid-February until the first Saturday in May. The next five week’s after that we have the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes which comprise the Triple Crown. These are the major races of three year old colts, geldings and sometimes fillies. The second season for the sophomore runners begins in late July, with the Haskell Invitational, Jim Dandy Stakes and Travers Stakes. In the past, the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs kicked off the final leg of three year old races within their own age group before facing older foes before the Breeder’s Cup. But now a new race has emerged as the final “big” three year old race before the fall championship series.
After being moved on the racing calendar from Labor Day to mid-September, the Pennsylvania Derby at PARX (formally Philadelphia racetrack) has emerged as the possibly “third leg” of the mid-summer three year old races. This year, we have a rematch of the top two finishers of this year’s Travers Stakes at Saratoga. But, before we discuss this year’s edition, I’ll look back at a little history of this mile and a eighth race in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.
Back in the day when I first started following thoroughbred racing in 1986, the Saratoga race meet ended in mid-August. Racing switched back to Belmont Park for the Labor Day weekend and on Labor Day, the biggest race at Philadelphia Park was run. In the 1986 edition, the race was run on a very sloppy track. The favorite that year was; Broad Brush, ridden by Angel Cordero Jr. During the running of the race, Broad Brush wasn’t handling the sloppy surface very well and bore out on the turn before the stretch. It looked like he was going to be beaten with this incident, but was righted by Cordero and won the race even with an eventful trip. I remember watching the race from the kitchen table with my dad in Fort Plain. I was never a big Broad Brush fan, but still was impressed that he won the race with a skillful ride from a Hall of Fame jockey. That was my first exposure to racing at Philadelphia Park and it was one I’ll never forget!
Today we have the aforementioned top two horses from this year’s Mid-Summer’s Derby; the Travers in Will Take Charge and Moreno. Both were longshots in this year’s running and surprising to me that they finished one/two. They have returned here as the “rematch” of three year olds that lay claim to possible year end honors in the sophomore division. Standing in the way of that “chance” are six other runners including an entry that they faced last time out and four other “new” shooters. Even though Todd Pletcher doesn’t have either Verrazano or Palace Malice entered here, he has longshot; Battier who is winless since switched to his barn, but has raced well over the PARX surface (5-3/1/1), Speak Logistics who was 2nd in the Smarty Jones Stakes here that was a prep for this race and Java’s War, a “stone cold” closer and now trained by Barclay Tagg.
My selections for this race will be the Godolphin stable entry of; Transparent & Romansh (#1). Transparent showed nothing in the Travers after being the “wise guy” horse and Romansh (who was a separate betting interest in the Travers) weakened late. I love their 8-1 morning line odds and will showed an improvement at a price today. For second, I’ll go with the Travers winner; Will Take Charge (#7) and his late closing kick. He’s been an honest runner all season long, but you’ll take a hit on his odds and price today! For show, I’m going with a bit of a longshot in; Fury Kapcori (#6) who has race exclusively on polytrack in California and only one “real” dirt try, a victory at the Fresno state fair circuit nearly a year ago. I’ll not be using the Travers runner-up; Moreno at all in any of my plays. I’ll reserve judgment on his trainer’s accusations about the Travers running and Will Take Charge's jockey……unless he wins today!
No comments:
Post a Comment