Jose Flores Stakes honors late jockey

Parx Racing on Saturday will honor the late jockey Jose L. Flores with a stakes named in his memory. Flores died March 22, several days after a racing accident at the track.

Flores, a native of Peru, would have turned 58 on Saturday. He is survived by his widow, the former rider Joanne McDaid-Flores, their grade-school age son Julian, and Jose’s two grown sons, Juan and Junior.

During his career, Flores rode 4,650 winners in North America and had mount earnings in excess of $64 million. He rode 2,250 winners at Parx and was the track’s leading rider in 2004. He was inducted into the Parx Hall of Fame in 2013.

Flores also had 2,215 winners at Penn National, where he led the standings four times during the 1990s.

The Flores Memorial, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies, has a field of 10, including the top three finishers from the $104,000 New Start, a Pennsylvania-bred stakes at Penn National in early June.

Parx has put together a nice supporting card, and the Flores Memorial will be preceded by three straight first-level allowance races. A pick four connects them.

Bronx Beauty was a two-length, on-the-pace winner of the New Start, while making her seasonal debut for Monmouth Park-based trainer Anthony Margotta Jr. She has worked weekly since mid-June and is the horse to beat Saturday.

A daughter of Liasion, Bronx Beauty is 4 for 5. She won three races at 2, including the Colleen Stakes at Monmouth and the statebred Blue Mountain Juvenile Fillies at Penn National.

Frankie Pennington, the leading rider at Parx, picks up the mount.

Trainer Eddie Colletti Jr. has entered the duo of Smokinpaddylassie and Dixie Serenade, just as he did in the New Start.

Smokingpaddylassie was the more highly regarded of the two coming into that race and rallied wide for second following a poor start. Dixie Serenade was bumped at the start and then followed her stablemate wide into the stretch. She finished third, a half-length farther back.

But since the New Start, Dixie Serenade has sprung a deep-closing $97 upset in the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Belmont Park, while Smokingpaddylassie finished seventh in a failed turf experiment in the Stormy Blues Stakes at Laurel Park.

Smokinpaddylassie has finished ahead of Dixie Serenade in all three of their head-to-head meetings and still merits a slight edge.

Roberto Rosado rides Smokingpaddylassie. Mychel Sanchez stays aboard Dixie Serenade.

The Flores Memorial will be the first start for Frigid Sister since April, but she has a promising work pattern at Penn National for trainer Flint Stites. This will be her first race since she rallied to be second in the open $75,000 Austintown Filly Sprint at Mahoning Valley.

The Austintown has proved to be a key race. Four of the six horses who have run back won their next start.

◗ Parx will close for its annual summer recess following Tuesday’s card. The Bensalem, Pa., track will reopen Aug. 25.