Mountaineer: Jockey race heats up between Pilares, Parker

Christian Pilares and Deshawn Parker have been the two hottest riders at Mountaineer Racetrack over the past couple of weeks, so it’s fitting that they will be aboard contenders in all three allowance races on Tuesday’s nine-race card that begins at 7 p.m. Eastern.

Coming into the weekend, Pilares had gone 10 for 33 (30 percent) over the past 10 days to lead the jockeys’ standings with 23 winners.

Parker, however, has been keeping pace, going 10 for 30 (33 percent) over the same span. He ranks fourth in the standings with 16 wins, largely due to the fact that he stayed in Texas to finish out the meet at Sam Houston Race Park, where he finished one win behind Gerardo Mora in the race for leading rider.

Since returning to Mountaineer, where he has long been the dominant jockey, Parker has gone 16 for 43 (37 percent), with a remarkable 77 percent of his mounts in the money.

Pilares, second in the standings to Parker last season, will go head-to-head with Parker in Tuesday’s seventh race, a first-level optional $15,000 claimer for fillies and mares going a mile.

Pilares will break from post 3 with the 3-year-old filly Cleo’s Krewe, who makes her second start of the season after finishing second while sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs March 15. She won her maiden going a mile at Mountaineer last October when ridden by Parker.

Two stalls outside Cleo’s Krewe, Parker has the mount on Reckless Moment, a 5-year-old mare who will be making her Mountaineer debut. She most recently finished third while running for a $12,500 tag at Hawthorne.

In race 6, a 5 1/2-furlong allowance sprint for nonwinners of two lifetime, In My Rear View gets a major rider switch from Pablo Tolentino to Parker. The last time Parker rode In My Rear View, the gelding finished a close second while going six furlongs.

The field also includes Stunt Double, a 3-year-old gelding who missed by a head March 17. Stunt Double will be ridden by Eddie Martin, who is enjoying a career resurgence since moving his tack to West Virginia. Martin, 50, began 2014 by going 1 for 39, mostly at Fair Grounds in his native Louisiana. He is tied for second in the Mountaineer standings with 19 wins.

In race 8, a six-furlong allowance for nonwinners of three lifetime, Pilares will try to make amends with the 5-year-old mare Mucho Sueno, who finished second as the even-money favorite while making her first start since October on March 5.