Page McKenney finishes with a flourish in Salvator Mile

OCEANPORT, N.J. – As has been the case many times before, Page McKenney looked beaten in midstretch of the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park on Saturday, but found a way to win.

Shaft of Light set a realistic pace of 23.41 seconds for a quarter-mile and 46.75 for a half-mile in the $100,000 Salvator while being tracked by 7-5 favorite Sunny Ridge. On the far turn, Sunny Ridge moved up to challenge.

Meanwhile, Page McKenney didn’t have the cleanest of starts and lagged back farther than might be expected in the seven-horse field. Horacio Karamanos, Page McKenney’s regular rider the past three years, let his mount settle into rhythm early.

Page McKenney began to make up ground on the backstretch, and then was asked to pick up the pace by Karamanos while saving ground on the far turn.

Following six furlongs in 1:10.61, Shaft of Light and Sunny Ridge battled through upper stretch before Shaft of Light began to get the upper hand. Leaving the furlong pole, Page McKenney was in third, but appeared to have too much ground to make up.

But in the final sixteenth, Page McKenney found more to give and closed with a rush to run by Shaft of Light nearing the wire and win by a half-length.

Karamanos has won 17 races aboard Page McKenney.

“It was tough at the eighth pole because the horses in front were not stopping,” Karamanos said. “At the sixteenth pole, I knew I had it because he gave me a little more.

“He is my favorite horse. He’s all heart. This horse tries hard all the time.”

Trainer Mary Eppler, who claimed Page McKenney for $16,000 in July 2013, has since won 21 races and more than $1.8 million with the Pennsylvania-bred war horse on behalf of owner Adam Staple and Jalin Stable. The Salvator reminded her of Page McKenney’s half-length victory last September in the $150,000 Pennsylvania Derby Champions Stakes at Parx Racing

“Page is Page and he has done this before,” Eppler said. “This race was like the one at Parx last year. It was the exact same race.”

Page McKenney, who is 8, came back from the Salvator Mile bleeding from his left front ankle, probably a result of stumbling at the start.

After his prior start, a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile, he was found to have a low blood count, which Eppler has closely monitored.

Despite everything, he paid a somewhat amazing $17.60 in the Salvator. He covered the mile in 1:36.49, getting a 101 Beyer Speed Figure.

Sunny Ridge finished third, 1 1/2 lengths behind Shaft of Light.

The Salvator was Page McKenney’s second graded stakes win. He won the Grade 3 General George at Laurel Park in 2017 going seven furlongs.

The Salvator also was the first of five legs of the Mid-Atlantic Championship long-on-dirt division.