Marconi was bred to excel on the racetrack but didn’t show what he was capable of until this year at age 4 when trainer Todd Pletcher stretched him out to marathon distances. On Saturday at Parx Racing, Marconi will be a heavy favorite to give Pletcher his third consecutive win in the Grade 3, $200,000 Greenwood Cup, a 1 1/2-mile dirt race. By leading sire Tapit out of Ponche de Leona, Marconi is a half-brother to $5.6 million earner Mucho Macho Man, winner of the 2013 Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was purchased as a yearling at the 2016 Keeneland September sale for $2 million by Bridlewood Farm and M.V. Magnier. The price was the second-highest at the auction to Mendelssohn, whom M.V. Magnier signed for at $3 million. Owned by Bridlewood, Susan Magnier, Derrick Smith, and Michael Tabor, Marconi started his career by going 1 for 6. He has now won 4 of his last 6, including three Belmont stakes – the Grade 2 Brooklyn and Grand Prix American Jockey Club at 1 1/2 miles and the 1 3/8-mile Flat Out. The longer distances allow Marconi to stay closer to the pace than he would going shorter, and he should be forwardly placed Saturday. With major stakes scheduled across the country, Pletcher has given the mount to Trevor McCarthy. Pletcher won last year’s Greenwood Cup with You’re to Blame and the 2017 edition with Madefromlucky. Standing in Marconi’s way Saturday is the grizzled veteran War Story. At age 7 with 36 races under his belt, War Story was in over his head in his last start when he finished sixth of 10 in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic. But he ran exceedingly well for trainer Jorge Navarro in his prior race, digging in ferociously to beat Bal Harbour by a head in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup. Bal Harbour came out of that race to finish second, beaten only a half-length, in the Grade 1 Woodward. The 1 1/8-mile Monmouth Cup was War Story’s second graded win. His most important victory came in the Grade 2 Brooklyn at Belmont in June 2017. War Story should be prominent from the start in the Greenwood Cup under Frankie Pennington, who is locked in a heated battle with Mychel Sanchez for the top spot in the Parx rider standings. Coming into the Saturday card, Pennington leads Sanchez 107-106. Pennington has won the last five Parx titles and six overall. Lemonade Thursday will be making his first start beyond 1 1/8 miles, but may appreciate the added ground as a son of Lemon Drop Kid. Lemonade Thursday has been working bullets at the Fair Hill Training Center for trainer Arnaud Delacour and comes out of a tough no-conditions allowance race on Aug. 15 at Delaware Park that has produced three next-out winners. Lemonade Thursday finished fourth, beaten two lengths, in the mile and 70-yard race to Cordmaker, a winner of 6 of his last 9, including the DTHA Governors Day Handicap last Saturday at Delaware. Phat Man, who was second in the Aug. 15 race at Delaware, came back to win the Good Magic Mile at Monmouth. The fifth-place finisher, Clubman, won the Maryland Coalition Stakes at Timonium in his next start.