A filly known as the "Grizzly Bear" was supposed to be the star of the show, but it's hard to outdo "The Coach."
That was the main takeaway from Pennsylvania Derby Day at Parx Racing Sept. 21, with notable subplots including another command performance by the best marathon dirt horse in the country (world?) and homebreds running amok in the undercard stakes races.
Thorpedo Anna, coming off a heartbreaking loss to Fierceness in the Travers Stakes-G1 at Saratoga, looked like a lock in the Cotillion-G1 and was bet accordingly, going off at 1-10 odds. Trainer Ken McPeek admittedly didn't have her cranked 100 percent and she was just good enough to catch longshot Gun Song and win by a neck.
One race later, the Pennsylvania Derby-G1 was a much more wide-open affair, at least on paper, but not if you had checked in with Seize the Grey's trainer, 89-year-young D. Wayne Lukas. When it was suggested to Lukas the day before the race that it looked like his Preakness Stakes-G1 winner would go to the lead, he called his shot.
"If he does, he's going to be very tough to beat," Lukas said.
Score one for the wisdom of age.
Jaime Torres did indeed send Seize the Grey to the front, and he led the other 10 horses on a merry chase around the Bensalem, Pa., oval, winning by 33⁄4 lengths and setting off a celebration that perhaps Parx, or any track for that matter, has never seen. More than 100 MyRacehorse partners descended on the winner's circle and, when they couldn't fit, they moved onto the track for the win photo.
"After the Preakness, it felt like an amazing moment and I was appreciative of it," said Michael Behrens, founder and CEO of MyRacehorse, who brought the Preakness trophy to Parx. "I know lightning doesn't strike more than once, but today it did and it's starting to exceed expectations now."
With Seize the Grey coming off two sub-par efforts -- seventh in the Belmont Stakes-G1 and fourth in the Jim Dandy-G2, both at Saratoga -- there were plenty who thought his Pat Day Mile-G2 and Preakness efforts may have been the exception. Lukas wasn't one of them.
"The thing about him is that after the debacle in Saratoga he trained brilliantly ever since," he said. "It never changed. He was really sharp every day. This is very gratifying. I was very confident. I have been that confident with him three times and all three times he won."
Seize the Grey, a son of Arrogate who sold for $300,000 as a yearling at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select sale, outran longshot Just Step On It to lead by a half-length through a quarter-mile in :23.89 and a half in :49.25. Second choice Unmatched Wisdom picked up the chase entering the far turn, with Santa Anita Derby-G1 winner Stronghold advancing on the outside and favorite Dragoon Guard making his move on the rail. Stronghold became the main threat, pulling even off the turn with every chance to go by, but Seize the Grey repelled the bid and pulled away late in the stretch.
"I didn't expect to get the lead that easy," Torres said. "He gave me the same feeling as the Preakness, the way he was moving and his ears. He was comfortable in there and I knew I was going to have a lot of horse at the end."
Stronghold finished second by a head over Dragoon Guard. Seize the Grey paid $10.60 to win while improving his career record to 13-5-0-3 with $2,415,938 earned.
In the Cotillion, the combination of McPeek not tightening the screws all the way, an 18-point regression off a career-best Beyer Speed Figure, and an uncomfortable trip almost got Thorpedo Anna beat.
Almost, but not quite.
Brian Hernandez Jr. and Thorpedo Anna found themselves boxed in down the backstretch, chasing Mystic Lake, ridden by Hall of Famer Mike Smith, and Gun Song with fellow Hall of Famer John Velazquez aboard. Much like he did on rail-skimming Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby-G1, Hernandez made a winning move turning for home, this time going outside the two frontrunners with a closing Tarifa right on his flank.
When the real running commenced, Thorpedo Anna had Gun Song to catch and that proved to be no easy task, but she took the lead inside the sixteenth pole and held on for the neck win.
Seize the Grey and Jaime Torres reach the finish with a Grade 1 win in the Pennsylvania Derby.
"A win is a win," McPeek said. "I'm going to take it. I'm not complaining. Good ones overcome everything. She is head
over heels above the 3-year-old fillies and as long as we didn't have anything real silly happen -- and we almost did -- I felt really confident."
McPeek discounted a bounce off the monster Travers effort, but Hernandez wasn't so sure.
horpedo Anna digs in late to get past Black-Eyed Susan Stakes winner Gun Song in the Grade 1 Cotillion.
“I know lightning doesn’t strike more than once, but today it did and it’s starting to exceed expectations now.”
– Michael Behrens, founder and CEO of MyRacehorse, about Seize the Grey’s wins in the Preakness and Pennsylvania Derby
"That's always in the back of your mind, especially with 3-year-old fillies," he said. "You have to expect them to regress a little bit. She ran so hard there against the boys in the Travers. And that was our biggest worry today. We knew she was the best horse in the race by far, but at the same time, coming off as such a big effort last time, a 111 Beyer, I was a little worried that she'd regress a little bit. She only had two works between this race and the Travers. But what really impressed me today was when she finally got her seam at the head of the lane and she took off. She had the will to win, and she just showed all her heart from that point on."
The graded stakes portion of the card kicked off with the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup, which surprisingly drew a field of 10 (scratched down to nine), considering defending champion Next came in with six consecutive wins by an average of 14 lengths. Maybe the second-place purse of $36,000 was the attraction, because it was pretty much a given that Next would be taking home the $108,000 winner's share.
Next -- foaled on the same day as 2023 Horse of the Year Cody's Wish, May 3, 2018 -- sat off the pace set by Ridin With Biden, the 2022 Greenwood winner. Luan Machado chose to take the lead heading into the far turn of the 11⁄2-mile race and from there the only question was the winning margin.
Next looks for competition – there was none – after dominating the Grade 3 Greenwood Cup for the second straight year.
Watching on a clubhouse TV, owner Michael Foster, who claimed Next for $62,500 in April 2022 at Keeneland, exhorted his horse and jockey, but the Parx regulars knew he had nothing to worry about.
"Bye-bye, good night," one shouted before the horses even entered the stretch. "The white horse is going to win by 10 lengths."
Who needs Equibase; he was exactly right.
Pennsylvania-breds get chance to shine
The Alphabet Soup was the first of four Pennsylvania-bred stakes on the undercard and the winner was Ascoli Piceno Stables' Crisper. Deanna Manfredi bred and owns the horse, whom she became attached to on her Kennett Square farm.
"He was one of my pandemic babies," Manfredi said of the gelding by Tapiture, foaled on March 27, 2019, by her Leroidesanimaux (Brz) mare Je Suis Enchantee. "When he was a yearling, I was stuck on my farm with him and one other yearling filly I had that year. I got particularly close to him because I was locked down with him for about six months. So we're quite close."
Manfredi, who holds a master's and Ph.D. from Princeton, was animated in rooting on her equine friend, who closed from sixth after a half-mile over the firm turf course and went by Fierce and Strong to win by a half-length under Julio Hernandez as the 2.80-1 favorite in the field of eight.
"That was very exciting," Manfredi said. "I didn't think he was going to get there. I was screaming louder than I intended to."
Manfredi also bred multiple stakes-placed Je Suis Enchantee, second in the Penn Oaks in 2014. She sent the mare to Tapiture for practical reasons.
"So that decision was made just by nicking her," she said. "I would love to go to Tapit, but I'm not going to afford that. They had a good price on him, and they liked the mare. She was a nice little runner herself. They gave me a good deal on him, and I got Crisper, and it was a good decision."
Manfredi, whose father Richard was a breeder, owner and trainer, has been breeding for 21 years and sits on the board of the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association. Crisper won the Alphabet Soup in his third attempt, after running third in 2022 and sixth last year.
"Persistence," Manfredi said. "He's maturing. He's a very small horse, and you wouldn't think he would be a grass horse. He's got the little, tiny feet, and he's a little tiny, lightweight guy. You wouldn't guess turf with him, but he is just a much better horse on the turf. He really dug in. He's got a lot of courage. He's a cardiac kid. I love it."
Trained at Fair Hill Training Center by Tim Woolley, Crisper won for the fifth time in 21 lifetime starts while pushing his career bankroll to $283,126. The Alphabet Soup was his third consecutive win, and second in a stakes, following the Summer Fun at Penn National Aug. 30.
If you're wondering about the most visually impressive performance of Pennsylvania Derby Day, it was turned in by The Boy's Warrior in the Whistle Pig Stakes for state-bred and -sired 2-year-olds. Breaking from the far outside in the six-horse field, the Warrior's Reward LLC homebred, by their sire of the same name, took the lead at the quarter pole and hit the wire 9 lengths in front of Reelin N Dealin. It was his second win in two starts.
Tim Girten, asked if he expected that dominating a performance, did not provide a trainer-speak answer.
"Yes," he said, without hesitation. "We sent him over here [from Presque Isle Downs] almost two weeks ago to gallop over the track. I drove down last Friday from Erie to watch him breeze over the track. Frankie [Pennington] worked him and he got a hold of the track beautifully [5 furlongs in 1:01.98] so we answered the question if he liked dirt or not. He's a very nice animal. He's going to run on anything, and he's going to go any distance."
Pewter Stable homebred Honorable Win came from 6 lengths behind in the stretch to win the Miss Blue Tye Dye for state-bred and -sired 2-year-old fillies in her debut. Trained by Kate Demasi and ridden by Silvestre Gonzales, the daughter of Winchill wore down Tudox Dahlia, who held for second.
"She's been super professional, and it's amazing how much she's grown all summer," Demasi said. "I had her training over at Monmouth and she was doing everything right, so just everything fell into place. I'm super happy for her. We have the mare. Well, actually, we just sold the mare [Honorable Partner]. That'll be good for the new connections. This whole family line has been really super for us."
When Bernie Houghton ships in from Penn National, it's always a good idea to pay attention, and that trend continued when Foxy Junior won the Plum Pretty Stakes.
"She matured this year," the trainer said of Dianne Stern's 4-year-old homebred. "She was a little bit of a handful in her younger years, but as she got older this year, she just came around. We gave her time off and after that last race [fourth in the Princess of Sylmar Stakes at Presque Isle July 29], we decided to give her the two months off and get her prepared for this race, and that's what I did."
Good plan.
PARX PICKS: After the fatal breakdown of Freedom Eagle in the Alphabet Soup, track management moved the Grade 3 Turf Monster to the dirt, resulting in a five-horse field, all Pennsylvania-breds. Trainer Butch Reid won the race with Smooth B, a 9-year-old son of Weigelia, who went over the $1-million-mark in career earnings with his 12th win. . . Favored Anabam broke down in the Miss Blue Tye Dye Stakes and was later euthanized. . . Jose D'Angelo was the only trainer to win two races on the card, taking the first with maiden Sherman Fury and the Grade 2 Gallant Bob with Bentornato. Irad Ortiz Jr., who rode three winners, was on both. . . The last race, the Parx Sprint Stakes, went off at 7:19 p.m., 20 minutes after sunset. It wasn't quite like the overnight training scene in Seabiscuit, but it wasn't far off. . . Every race on the card had a purse of at least $100,000. . . The overall handle for the 14-race card (11 stakes) was $16,007,617, down about $1 million from last year's card, run on a day when three East Coast tracks canceled due to heavy rains.
