Fast starts pay dividends for pair of Parx stakes winners
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Early speed told the tale in both $75,000 stakes races Tuesday at Parx Racing. Burner Account, sent off at 23-1, turned away all challengers to win the Main Line Stakes, while 6-5 favorite Baby Dukes wore down Right Wing Runner in the City of Brotherly Love Stakes, winning a duel that began out of the starting gate.
Entering the Main Line, a dirt race at 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies, Burner Account ($48) had minimal route experience and one stakes start, a distant fifth-place finish in the Selima Stakes at a muddy Laurel Park back in September. Trainer Miguel Rodriguez entered the race with as many stakes wins – zero – as his filly in a training career that stretches back to 2009.
Several runners in the race previously demonstrated front-running ability, but Burner Account and jockey Anthony Salgado were the only pair who took the chance. Completing a half-mile in a slow 50.49 seconds left her with plenty of energy in the stretch, where she easily kicked away from Maximus Angelicus and kept closing runner-up Beautiful Biome at bay to win by 5 3/4 lengths.
When Hollywood Beauty, the 3-5 favorite in the Main Line, last visited Parx on Dec. 30, she won a stakes race by 8 1/4 lengths. The second choice in the Main Line, Rick Dutrow trainee Diriyah, was entering off a promising maiden special weight win at Indiana Grand. Neither filly was much of a factor Tuesday, finishing well behind the runaway leader in fifth and sixth, respectively.
In the 1 1/16-mile City of Brotherly Love Stakes for 3-year-old males, the top three runners finished the race as they started it. Gun Trader, who went off at 37-1, ran around the track in third throughout, leaving inside runners Baby Dukes and Right Wing Runner to vie for the lead through pedestrian fractions of 24.40 seconds and 49.16 for the half-mile.
Breaking from the rail, jockey Eliseo Ruiz and 6-5 favorite Baby Dukes led after completing three-quarters of a mile in 1:15.17, but Frankie Pennington and Right Wing Runner sat just to their outside the entire way and passed them in the stretch. The horses lightly bumped coming out of the turn for home and drifted through the stretch, but neither seemed spent as the rest of the field faded from contention.
Digging in as Right Wing Runner showed early signs of fatigue, Baby Dukes re-rallied on the inside to get back in front and take his first stakes race in a three-quarter-length victory. He paid $4.60 to win for trainer Butch Reid.
Like Burner Account, Baby Dukes entered his race with just one route attempt as a juvenile. He had not raced since December, using the layoff to adjust to dramatic changes ahead of his 3-year-old campaign.
"We took the blinkers off, gelded him, and sort of started from scratch," Reid said after the race. "We always felt he had some talent. It is good to see him coming through. He ran a really game race and the route of ground wasn't a problem."
As in the Main Line, the horses who did not try and take the early lead in the City of Brotherly Love suffered the consequences under the wire. The 3-2 second choice, Harrigan, undefeated in two starts for trainer Michael Pino, settled into stalking position early but floundered in his stakes debut, finishing last of six by 12 1/2 lengths.
The speed bias in these stakes was no fluke. In 10 races on dirt at Parx on Tuesday, six horses won after leading through the opening quarter-mile.
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