Like father, like son as Nasa takes Pennsylvania Nursery

The 2-year-old colt Nasa followed in the footsteps of his famous father, Smarty Jones, by winning Saturday’s $100,000 Pennsylvania Nursery at Parx Racing.

Smarty Jones, who went on to capture the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, won the Pennsylvania Nursery in late fall of 2003. Like Smarty Jones, Nasa is a homebred for Patricia Chapman’s Someday Farm and trained by John Servis.

Nasa ($6.60), the slight second choice, was sent to the front on a sloppy, sealed track by jockey Kendrick Carmouche. He and New York shipper Instructor Kunu, a 20-1 maiden, ran one-two for the entire seven furlongs, completed in 1:24.67. The margin at the wire was 2 1/4 lengths. Blitzensmajikreign finished third at 34-1, 4 1/2 lengths in front of 21-1 longshot Scip of Indy.

The two disappointments in the race were Flagndini, who finished eighth as the 2-1 favorite, and Awesome Alex, sixth at 5-2.

The two huge longshots behind the 2-1 winner produced a $2 trifecta payoff worth $942.60.

Nasa won his maiden in his second career start at Laurel Park in late September, and then was third as the 2-5 favorite in a South Carolina residency restricted stakes three weeks ago.