Behrnik's Bank, Bird of Trey return to Pa-bred company for stakes
Two horses who each gave two dominating performances in restricted company as 2-year-olds but faltered when they tried bigger stages return to their comfort zone as the favorites in a pair of $100,000 stakes for Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-olds on Saturday’s program at Penn National.
Behrnik’s Bank, who ran two of the fastest races in the country among 2-year-old female sprinters last fall at Penn National with Beyer Speed Figures of 88 and 94, returns to the central Pennsylvania track to face 10 statebred 3-year-old fillies in the six-furlong New Start Stakes.
Two races later, Bird of Trey, who trounced two groups of Pa.-breds at Parx last season, heads a group of 10 statebred 3-year-olds in the six-furlong Danzig Stakes.
Behrnik’s Bank, who has been training at Monmouth Park, began her career by winning back-to-back starts by a combined 31 1/2 lengths. In her first start out of town, she missed by a neck as the 1-5 favorite in a New York Stallion stakes at Aqueduct. She flashed speed and faded badly in her lone start this season in another New York Stallion stakes.
Her opponents in the New Start include Authoritative, a daylight winner in her first two starts this season at Parx; and Wilma Lynn, winner of a first-level allowance against open company two starts ago.
Bird of Trey trounced maidens and stakes foes in the Pennsylvania Nursery by a combined margin of 18 1/2 lengths. He was briefly on the Triple Crown trail, finishing a distant fourth in the Grade 3 Jerome and 11th of 14 in the Grade 3 Southwest.
His foes in the Danzig include Graves Island, 2 for 2 sprinting this season; Rolin with Olin, winner of back-to-back starts within a 14-day span in May by a combined 9 3/4 lengths; and Police Escort, freshened since winning his debut against statebreds by 3 1/2 lengths in mid-April.