Parx: Inside posts productive during first week of meet

A lot of work was done to level the inside base of the Parx racing surface prior to the meet. During opening week, the inner posts fared well going both short and long. Of the 14 sprint races run, posts 1 and 3 each produced four winners. In 12 two-turn races, three winners came from the inside post.

Velazquez nears 1,000 wins

Coming into this week’s races, trainer Alfredo Velazquez is two wins away from 1,000 career victories.

Velazquez, a 71-year-old native of Puerto Rico, has been a trainer since 1984. He scored his biggest victories in 2014, when he won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile and Grade 1 Vosburgh with Private Zone, whom he trained for the Good Friends Stable, which is appropriately managed by Velazquez’s good friend Rene Douglas.