Dana Whitney rides 4,000th winner

Penn National-based Dana Whitney scored his 4,000th career victory in the second race Friday evening when he guided Vicksburg Bluffs to a front-running 1 1/2-length victory in a $9,000 claiming race.

Whitney, 48, has been a top five rider at Penn National ever since he shifted his base of operations 250 miles to the east from Mountaineer Park in 2009. He has topped the Penn National standings three times – 2014, 2011, and 2010. John Trulock has been Whitney's agent since he made the move at Penn National.

A native of the Philippines who was raised in the U.S., Whitney began riding in 1995. He arrived at Mountaineer two years later and stayed there until 2008. He topped the rider standings at the Chester, W.Va., track in 2001 and 1999, and won one of the four meets held there in 2002.

Whiney won his 3,000th race at Penn National in August 2010 and his 2,000th at Mountaineer five years earlier. In all, he has 2,400 wins at Mountaineer and 1,160 at Penn National.

Whitney has won two graded stakes during his career, the Grade 2 Ohio Derby and Grade 3 Calder Derby, both aboard Western Pride in 2001 for trainer Richard Estvanko.

His other top mounts include Ravalo, who he won three stakes at Mountaineer on for trainer Donald Barr in 2007 and 2008, and Fabulous Strike, who he won three Mountaineer stakes on in 2006 and 2007 and a Penn National allowance with in 2011 for trainer Todd Beattie.

Whitney was at Delaware Park on Saturday afternoon to ride Power of Snunner in the $100,000 Obeah Stakes, before heading back to Penn National for the evening card. Whitney had ridden Power of Snunner in five straight races prior to Saturday for Penn National's leading trainer, Timothy Kreiser. Whitney has guided Power of Snunner to victory in the Foxy J.G. and the Plum Pretty, both at Parx.