Parx Racing: Dutrow holding strong hand

Trainer Tony Dutrow appears to be holding a pair of aces for Monday’s $47,000 feature at Parx Racing. The eight-horse field for the first-level allowance at six furlongs includes Dutrow’s uncoupled entry of 3-year-olds Southern Honor and Edge of Reality.

The Pennsylvania-bred Southern Honor has been off for 2 1/2 months since beating 11 statebred rivals on Jan. 26 at Penn National. Not only did Southern Honor register a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure, but the allowance turned out to be a key race, producing three next-out winners, including runner-up Energetico, who came back to win an allowance with an 88 Beyer Figure.

Interestingly, however, Stewart Elliott, who has been aboard for both of Southern Honor’s victories, will ride Edge of Reality, a colt who appears to be much slower on paper than his stablemate, in Monday’s race.

Edge of Reality returns to suburban Philadelphia, where he won his career debut by eight lengths sprinting, albeit with a 63 Beyer, after a failed one-race experiment going two turns at Gulfstream Park.

Edge of Reality’s owners, the Elkstone Group, felt strongly enough about this son of Lawyer Ron’s talent that they paid to nominate him to the Triple Crown series. But when asked to try 1 1/16 miles in his 3-year-old debut in February, Edge of Reality stopped badly to finish a distant seventh.

Edge of Reality was shipped back north and prepped for Monday’s race by working a bullet half-mile in 48 seconds at the Fair Hill Training Center on March 31. Dutrow shows a 4-for-10 record (40 percent) with allowance runners switching from routes to sprints following a break of 31 to 60 days.

Trainer Ramon Moya also has a two-horse uncoupled entry, the 5-year-old Running Tap and 6-year-old Mutiny, who have combined for 11 career victories. Moya’s son, Ramon F. Moya, has chosen to ride Running Tap, who was up close at the stretch call in 6 1/2-furlong races the last two times he faced first-level allowance company. Although often in the money, Running Tap is just 1 for 13 lifetime at Parx.

Purely Determined is dangerous if a month’s rest enables him to regain the form he displayed between October and January, when he finished first or second in six straight races. His recent form tailed off when he was far back as the favorite in two straight races at Monday’s level in February and March.