Parx

When you have been in the game as long as Alfredo Velazquez, nobody has to tell you quite how long a journey divides slop-splattered defeat at Aqueduct on the first day of the year from Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. By the same token, however, the length of perspective opened by six decades on the racetrack gives persuasive substance to the Parx stalwart's excitement over Smarten Up (American Freedom), who graduated from a nine-length maiden romp at his home track to mount a storming finish for second...

With 2021 now behind us--thankfully, some might say--it's time to look back at the TDN stories that were the mostly widely read during the year. Unfortunately, it's a list largely void of feel-good stories. That's not surprising during what was another tumultuous year for the sport, from the sad saga of Medina Spirit (Protonico) to the sentencing of drug cheat Jorge Navarro to five years in prison to the 11th-hour surprise that was the United States Anti-Doping Agency announcing that it would not be part of the Horseracing Integrity and...

The Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (PTHA), which represents the interests of horsemen at Parx Racing, has named Jeffrey A. Matty, Jr. as its new Executive Director effective Jan. 1, 2022. Matty has served as Racing Manager for Besecker Racing Stable, an Assistant Stakes Coordinator at Monmouth Park Racetrack, and a Racing Official with Parx Racing. Matty will fill a vacancy left by Michael P. Ballezzi, who announced his retirement earlier this month after 25 years of leadership. "We are thrilled to have Jeffrey Matty joining the PTHA as our new...

1st-Parx Racing, $42,500, Msw, 11-22, 2yo, 1m 70y, 1:43.73, ft, 9 lengths. SMARTEN UP (c, 2, American Freedom--Sarah Cataldo, by Smarty Jones) finished with interest to be runner-up on seven-furlong debut at this track Sept. 25 and was exiting a pace-pressing third in a one-mile test Oct. 20, good for a strong 71 Beyer Speed Figure. Four wide around the first time and right on top of a strong early pace, the even-money chalk punched the breeze down the backstretch. Allowed to poke his head in front at the three-eighths...

Trainer Ron Glorioso, a mainstay at Parx since that track opened in 1974, passed away Oct. 22 at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. He was 79. Before entering training, the Philadelphia native was a Pennsylvania State Trooper assigned to the mounted unit. He stayed with the state police for five years before shifting gears and becoming a trainer. He first became interested in racing when his father took him to the track when he was a freshman in high school. Glorioso started out in the late sixties at...

It was 35 years ago this weekend that Broad Brush bolted to the outside fence at the top of the stretch while on a clear lead in the Pennsylvania Derby, then amazingly re-rallied to claw back the lead for an improbable win. They've long since rebranded Philadelphia Park to Parx, added a racino, and been awarded an upgrade of that track's premier stakes from Grade II to Grade I. But history tends to repeat, and that same quirky spot at the quarter pole proved eerily enigmatic yet again on Saturday,...

Stonestreet homebred Clairiere (Curlin) kicked home convincingly in Saturday's GI Cotillion S. at Parx to earn a first highest-level victory and snap a five-race winless streak while capping an exacta for her sire. A neck winner of the GII Rachel Alexandra S. in February, the Steve Asmussen pupil was second best to familiar foe Travel Column (Frosted) in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks a month later. She was fourth behind fellow Stonestreet product Malathaat (Curlin) in the GI Kentucky Oaks Apr. 30, third in the GII Mother Goose S. at...

MGISW Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) stands well above the rest of the field in the GII Gallant Bob S. at Parx Saturday. Winner of the GI Hopeful S. and GI Champagne S. last season, the bay captured the GII Pat Day Mile May 1 on the GI Kentucky Derby undercard and missed by a neck next out in Belmont's GI Woody Stephens S. June 5. Dominating by 7 1/4 lengths in Saratoga's GII Amsterdam S. Aug. 1, the $95,000 KEESEP purchase denied previously unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Life is Good...

Medina Spirit (Protonico), the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday's GI Pennsylvania Derby, will not be making the trip to Parx this weekend. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said Tuesday that the GI Kentucky Derby winner will remain in California and instead run in the GI Awesome Again S. against older horses at Santa Anita Oct. 2. "I want to do what is best for the horse," Baffert said. "I don't like the way he drew." Medina Spirit was assigned post position nine in the Pennsylvania Derby. Medina Spirit, third...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 7th-PRX, $42K, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 7 1/2fT, 3:37 p.m. ET ANGHAAM (Curlin) is the first of just two foals out of Serena's Harmony (Tapit), purchased by Bridlewood Farm as a weanling for $3 million at Keeneland November in 2014, the top price for a weanling at that sale and the second most-expensive of that age group ever sold at Keeneland. Lady Take Charge (War Front--Take Charge Lady) brought a record $3.2 million in 2015. Serena's Harmony is a daughter of SW Serena's Cat (Storm Cat),...

The Pennsylvania-bred stakes schedule received a major boost for the remainder of the year, with four stakes doubling in value to $200,000, plus the addition of two $100,000 stakes. A total of $2.6 million in purses will now be paid out in restricted, state-bred stakes in 2021. "Our revenue has stabilized and the Race Horse Development Trust Fund has stood strong," Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association's executive secretary Brian Sanfratello said. "We wanted to send a message that Pennsylvania is on the move and the premier place to breed and race."...

Trainer Richard Vega has been hit with a two-year suspension by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission after a May 25 backstretch raid at Parx allegedly turned up a number of needles and syringes in his tack room. Paulick Report was the first to report on Vega's suspension, which was handed down June 29 and does not expire until June 28, 2023. According to a ruling posted on the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission's website, during the search of Vega's tack room investigators found 21 loaded syringes, 18 needles, one intravenous filled bag...