After winning yesterday, we head home to Parx for a couple of days here. We will take a look at the eighth race here today. We have seven older Pennsylvania-bred horses going six and a half furlongs.
There is a unique condition to this race. In this optional claiming event, you are either running for a $50,000 claiming tag, or your horse never won two Pennsylvania restricted races other than maiden, claiming or starter races. I’m sure this race condition is run somewhat frequently at Parx, but at least to me, it looks unique.
Parx Race 8 – Optional Claiming
Favored in our featured race is the 1 Party At Sam’s (5/2 morning line). Today is this gelding’s first race in almost three months after racing at Parx in December. He draws the rail here and has the speed along the rail here to go gate to wire. There will be a few horses behind him, but he will be gunning for the lead here today.
The 5 Get Set (7/2 ML) will be starting the favorite here today. He was second best here at Parx at the end of January under these same race conditions. He rallied to finish second in that race and should be ready after firing a bullet (that is, best workout time on a certain day at the workout distance) last week.
The 6 Golden Candy (3/1 ML) finished third last time out here at Parx in his first race back after a four-month layoff. He rallied to finish third but might have showed that he needed more. He will to improve off of that effort today.
The 4 Eagles Cry (6/1 ML) comes in off of a seven-month layoff here today in a tough group of seven here today. But if we learned anything last month, Eagles don’t cry, they win Super Bowls. Oh wait, the horse. My bad!
He has shown some nice works at Penn National in preparation for today’s race. He may need this, but he could potentially be further back in this race early on today.
Joe’s Pick
Sometimes lone speed is dangerous. But what is also dangerous is the combination of jockey Mychal Sanchez and trainer Jamie Ness. Their numbers are off the charts in all categories here. They win at Parx at a 32% clip. Overall at all tracks, that number is 27%. Those numbers are part of a large sample size which tells me that they should be able to overcome the favorite gunning for the lead here today.
I’m calling this race 5-1-6-4 and my play is $20 to win on the 5. Best of luck everyone and I’ll see ya in the winner’s circle!
