Beverly Park Grinds Out Continent-Topping Win No. 13

Beverly Park (Munnings), scored his 13th win of the year in his 28th seasonal start Monday in the sixth race at Mahoning Valley Race Course.

With a little more than a month left in 2022 and his next closest competitors all five victories behind him, Beverly Park has now assuredly clinched the title of North America's winningest Thoroughbred based on victories for the year.

Beverly Park's number of starts also leads the continent, and given this horse's penchant for performing well under a steady workload, the 5-year-old starter-allowance stalwart might not yet be finished racing before the condition books close on 2022.

In his typical force-the-issue, grind-it-out fashion, the 7-10 favorite hounded the pacemakers from the outside in the six-furlong sprint restricted to horses who have started for a claiming tag of $8,000 or less over the past two calendar years.

Beverly Park took over at the head of the lane under jockey Yan Aviles, got headed in midstretch, then dug in determinedly to power past a stubborn rival to win by a length in 1:12.28.

Beverly Park was claimed for $12,500 Aug. 5, 2021, by current owner/trainer, Norman Lynn Cash, whose horses race under the name Built Wright Stables.

Beverly Park has not started for a tag since being claimed, feasting exclusively on starter-allowances, optional claimers in which he was not entered for a tag, and in the $100,000 Ready's Rocket Express on the Claiming Crown card two weekends ago.

In the span between Cash's claiming him and Monday's win, Beverly Park is now 20-for-36 with $465,628 in purse earnings (roughly 37 times that original claim investment). His lifetime record stands at 23-7-4 from 45 starts.

Beverly Park has been eligible for some lucrative starter-allowance spots. But because improved horses who once ran for low claiming tags generally scare away entrants for those restricted races, Cash has had to hit the road his stable star to extend his winning ways.

So far in '22, Beverly Park has raced at Oaklawn, Charles Town, Turfway, Laurel, Mahoning Valley, Keeneland, Monmouth, Belterra, Churchill, Thistledown, Delaware, Colonial and Timonium.

No North American Thoroughbred had won more than 12 races in an entire calendar year since 2011, when Rapid Redux ran the table with a 19-for-19 record.