Firenze Fire the big name on Thanksgiving Eve at Penn

Penn National sets the table for a long holiday weekend of stakes action with a Wednesday night card featuring three stakes with six-figure purses. The $200,000 Fabulous Strike Stakes and $100,000 Swatara Stakes, both for 3-year-olds and up, have drawn seasoned graded stakes performers. Those two stakes are joined on the card by the $100,000 Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies for Pennsylvania-breds.

Grade 1-winning millionaire Firenze Fire looms large in the six-furlong Fabulous Strike, for which he was tabbed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite. Trainer Jason Servis has cross-entered Firenze Fire in the Grade 3, $200,000 Fall Highweight Handicap Thursday at Aqueduct, but said he intends to run him in the Fabulous Strike.

This year, Firenze Fire has won just once from seven outings, but is coming off a series of outstanding performances. He finished second by three lengths in the Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga as Mitole established a track record; was beaten a nose by Imperial Hint in the Grade 1 Vosburgh at Belmont; and, most recently, was fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita, won by Mitole. Firenze Fire earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 103 in his two most recent outings. He boasts four triple-digit figures this season, and is the only entrant in this field to meet that threshold in 2019.

Firenze Fire won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes and Grade 3 Sanford Stakes as a juvenile in 2017, and last year captured a pair of Grade 3 events, the Dwyer and the Gallant Bob stakes.

Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Firenze Fire on Wednesday.

Servis also cross-entered Happy Farm in the Fabulous Strike and Fall Highweight. Happy Farm has won three consecutive races at Belmont by a combined 11 3/4 lengths, all with Beyer Speed Figures of 91 or higher, but is stepping up to stakes company for the first time.

Defending Fabulous Strike winner Midtowncharlybrown won a statebred stakes this year at Parx. He is coupled in the wagering with his younger full brother Midnightcharly, who is cutting back in distance off an optional-claiming victory at Penn.

Multiple graded stakes-placed Lewisfield, third in last year’s Fabulous Strike, comes off a third-place finish in the Maryland Million Sprint.

The Fabulous Strike field also includes Zipp On By, a stakes winner at Mountaineer, and multiple graded stakes-placed Vorticity, who recently finished second in a Laurel allowance in his first start in more than a year.

◗ The 1 1/16-mile Swatara appears to be a wide-open affair, with 3-1 morning-line favorite Name Changer returning from a long layoff to face several who have won stakes this year. Name Changer drew the inside post under Irad Ortiz Jr. The horse won 4 of 6 starts in 2018, all for trainer Alan Goldberg, including the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup and the Queens County at Aqueduct in December. He is making his first start since the Queens County and is now trained by Jorge Duarte Jr.

Someday Jones and Forewarned are among Name Changer’s main competition in the Swatara.

Someday Jones, who won a stakes this year at Parx Racing, finished second in his most recent outing, the M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile Stakes at Parx. The winner, Spun to Run, went on to take the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Third in the Ballezzi Mile was Forewarned, who in his subsequent start won the Best of Ohio Endurance over defending winner Mo Dont No.

The field also includes Monongahela, winner of the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin at Monmouth; Isotherm, winless this season and Grade 1-placed in 2018; and Bon Raison, a restricted stakes winner at Saratoga who comes off an optional-claiming victory at Belmont.

◗ The 6-5 morning-line favorite in the six-furlong Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies is Autonomous, shipping in for Chad Brown off an impressive debut Nov. 3 at Aqueduct. The Quality Road filly drew off to win by 4 1/2 lengths with a Beyer of 71, by far the best figure in this field. She has drawn the rail under Kendrick Carmouche.

Lula’s Roadrunner and Leaky Cauldron are both stakes-placed against statebreds on the synthetic surface at Presque Isle.