Parx: Golddigger's Boy defends title in Lyman Handicap

Golddigger’s Boy and Ann’s Smart Dancer, both three-time stakes winners in 2011, headline a stakes doubleheader for Pennsylvania-breds on Saturday at Parx Racing.

The 5-year-old Golddigger’s Boy is one of six horses who combined to win 10 stakes last season in the Lyman Handicap (race 8). Ann’s Smart Dancer launches her 4-year-old campaign against eight other fillies and mares in the Foxy J. G. (race 7). Both stakes will be contested at seven furlongs and carry a purse of $75,000.

Last year’s Lyman was part of a five-race winning streak for Golddigger’s Boy, a homebred for William and Frances Hartwell trained by Ramon Preciado. Golddigger’s Boy also defeated Pa-breds going two turns in the Docent and won Parx’s top race for older male sprinters, the $200,000 Donald LeVine Memorial Handicap.

Reid gave Golddigger’s Boy the rest of the season off following back-to-back losses to Jackson Bend and Uncle Mo in the Grade 1 Forego and Grade 2 Kelso. He failed to fire in his first start this year, finishing a distant third in the Bensalem a month ago. Since then, Golddigger’s Boy has posted a pair of five-furlong bullets.

Rod’s Five Star, who finished two lengths in front of Golddigger’s Boy as the runner-up in the Bensalem, will also make the second start of his form cycle in the Lyman. The 4-year-old Rod’s Five Star, 5 for 7 lifetime, gets a five-pound weight concession from 123-pound highweight Golddigger’s Boy.

Lucky Lewis, a two-time stakes winner in routes last year, shortens up to seven furlongs for the first time since he finished third in the 2010 Pennsylvania Nursery. He merits respect shipping in from New York for high-percentage trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.

The third multiple stakes winner from 2011 in the field, Gunfighter, makes his first start since October while switching from turf to dirt and moving from a route to a sprint. The versatile Gunfighter won a pair of restricted stakes going long in 2011, but also ran second twice in a pair of six-furlong sprint stakes at Monmouth Park.

The Foxy J.G. marks the return of Ann’s Smart Dancer, the feel-good story of last season at Parx. She is a homebred owned by longtime public handicapper Craig Donnelly, who named the filly in honor of his late wife.

The co-highweight at 124 pounds, Ann’s Smart Dancer reeled off three restricted stakes wins in a row last season, including the Caught in the Rain at the same seven-furlong distance as Saturday’s race.

Her rivals include Darn That Raven, a 3-for-5 filly stepping up to stakes company for the first time, and Prize Winner, who finished just a neck behind Ann’s Smart Dancer the last time they met in September.