Page McKenney will point to Lyman Stakes
Page McKenney, who was under consideration for the Charles Town Classic, will skip that race and instead be pointed to the $100,000 Lyman Stakes at Parx Racing on April 29.
Page McKenney came out of a March 26 workout at Pimlico Race Course with a bruised heel on his right front hoof. The injury forced him to miss some training. The Pimlico track also was closed for repairs from April 10-12.
Between the injury and the track closure, he missed too much training time to be ready for the Charles Town Classic, according to trainer Mary Eppler.
“We thought he was going to pop an abscess, but he didn’t,” Eppler said. “The heel was just sensitive to the touch. The good news is that while we were treating his foot, we had him ultrasounded, and everything came back good. The left tendon he hurt last year is perfect.”
Eppler was pleased with Page McKenney’s five-furlong workout last Saturday and plans to work him again this weekend for the Lyman, a seven-furlong race for Pennsylvania-breds. Since Page McKenney is Pennsylvania-sired, he will run for a purse of $125,000.
“It’s not his perfect distance, but he’s always run well at Parx, and it’s a good place to start him back,” Eppler said.
Page McKenney, 7, hasn’t raced at Parx since September 2015 but has a 7-4-2-1 record at the track, with earnings of $173,000.
Page McKenney finished second to Stanford in last year’s Charles Town Classic and was third to Moreno in 2015. Overall, he is 17 for 46 with more than $1.4 million in earnings.
Ocasio wins without bug
Luis Ocasio, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice rider of 2016, won with his first mount as a journeyman at Parx Racing on Tuesday.
Ocasio won the second race on the card aboard Curlin Crush ($8.20) for trainer Carlos Guerrero.
After starting his career 3 for 84 in his native Puerto Rico, Ocasio has gone 159 for 857 in the United States, a win average of 18 percent.
◗ After being away for a month, Imperial Hint has returned from Dubai and is back in trainer Luis Carvajal Jr.’s stable at Parx.
Imperial Hint came down with a fever after shipping to Dubai in mid-March. His illness developed into pneumonia, forcing him to miss the $2 million Golden Shaheen and remain at Meydan Race Course until he was well enough to travel home.