Parx Fall Festival has rich opening-day card

The opening-day card for the eight-week Parx Fall Festival, which begins Saturday, will offer more than $1 million in purses.

There are 111 horses entered in the 11 races, an average of 10 per race. Horsemen from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware will participate. Even Sheikh Mohammed and Shadwell Stable have runners on the card.

The 32-day festival will offer overnight purses of $500,000 per day, but director of racing Sam Elliott wanted to make a statement on opening day.

“I wanted to start off with a bang,” Elliott said. “Volume was a little lower than I expected, but we made all of the races we wanted. We have $708,000 in overnight purses plus the $300,000 Smarty Jones. I carded an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles with a purse of $86,000 as the first race to get things started on the right note.”

The Grade 3 Smarty Jones, the local prep for the Pennsylvania Derby, drew a field of eight, topped by Divining Rod and Souper Colossal.
Divining Rod won the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes in April and has since finished third in the Preakness, Ohio Derby, and Indiana Derby. Souper Colossal was second in the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby in his most recent start.

Social Inclusion will make his debut for local horseman Juan Carlos Guerrero in race 5, a second-level optional-claiming race at 1 1/16 miles. The race offers a purse of $88,000.

Owned by the Rontos Racing Stable of Ron Sanchez, Social Inclusion finished third last year in the Wood Memorial, Preakness, and Woody Stephens before being sidelined by a tendon injury.

The card also includes a no-conditions allowance race at a mile and 70 yards that has a purse of $100,000.

“If you look at the condition book, Saturday’s races are very similar to what I have on Pennsylvania Derby Day,” Elliott said. “I’m hoping a lot of these horses will come back in three weeks.”

The festival is the result of an agreement between horsemen and Parx management to trim live racing days. Parx was granted 210 racing dates for 2015 but will race only 153 days in 2016. The purse money saved funds the fall festival.

Parx dropped eight racing days this month and will be closed this coming winter from Dec. 27 until Feb. 13. Last winter, Parx lost 18 cards to weather-related cancellations.

As part of the agreement, Parx will keep its track groomed for training year-round and will make $4.4 million in capital improvements. The paddock area has been completely redone over the current break, and the track’s safety rail will be replaced this winter.

The Fall Festival corresponds with Parx’s biggest stakes of the year.

On Sept. 19, the Bensalem, Pa., track will run the Grade 2, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby; the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion; the Grade 3, $300,000 Gallant Bob; and the $150,000 Bayern Stakes.

On Sept. 7, Parx has the Grade 3, $300,000 Turf Monster; the Grade 3, $200,000 Greenwood Cup; and the $150,000 Turf Amazon.

The $200,000 PTHA President’s Cup is scheduled for Sept. 12.