Parx Racing: Bowman's Beast goes for three straight in Monday allowance

Trainer Cathal Lynch and JMC Stables do not have a very long association. But based on what they have done in a few months, it looks like the start of a successful partnership.

Lynch and JMC Stables are 5 for 10 in their first season working together, with three other starters hitting the board for an 80 percent in-the-money record. The stable’s co-stars have been Gotogo Bye, 2 for 3 since being claimed for $10,000 last October, and the lightly raced 4-year-old gelding Bowman’s Beast, who bids for his third straight win in Monday’s $47,000 feature at Parx Racing.

Bowman’s Beast sold for a mere $1,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale in October 2010. He is part of the last crop sired by Bowman’s Band, a Grade 2 winner with $1.3 million in earnings who spent just four seasons as a stallion before he was euthanized due to complications from colic surgery.

Bowman’s Beast did not make his racing debut until this past February, when he rallied from far back to finish second going six furlongs against $25,000 maiden claimers. He responded well when given some extra yardage, winning his next two starts by a combined margin of 23 1/2 lengths, the first a seven-furlong maiden claiming race and most recently a one-mile $25,000 starter allowance. His 11 1/2-length win April 3 looks even more impressive since runner-up Deep Water returned to win his next start with an 80 Beyer Speed Figure.

The 77 Beyer that Bowman’s Beast recorded is the best last-race figure in the field for Monday’s eighth race, a first-level allowance at a mile and 70 yards on the main track. But it is only 2 to 3 points higher than the most recent Beyers recorded by Take Advantage, Smoken Legacy, Full Liquidity, and Courtroom Drama.

Of that group, Take Advantage and Smoken Legacy look the most dangerous.

Take Advantage ships in from Florida after he was claimed out of a third-place finish for $25,000 on March 31. Three starts ago, the 4-year-old Take Advantage ran the fastest race of his 21-race career, dueling up front and finishing second going 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 91.

Smoken Legacy, claimed for $16,000 at Santa Anita in February, got up by a nose in his Parx debut in a one-mile race for $16,000 starter allowance runners. He must pick up six additional pounds off that victory and concede 3 to 12 pounds to his six rivals Monday as the 124-pound highweight.