Parx Racing: Winning Image back at home track for the Cornucopia

A trip to Presque Isle Downs to face champion female sprinter Groupie Doll didn’t go well for Winning Image, but the 6-year-old mare returns to her comfort zone when she heads a lineup of 11 older filly and mare sprinters in the Cornucopia, the second of two $75,000 overnight stakes on Saturday’s card at Parx Racing.

Winning Image, a three-time stakes winner this season, is 4 for 4 in stakes at Parx since the fall of 2011, including the 2011 running of the six-furlong Cornucopia with a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure. A four-race winning streak that began in her final race of 2012 ended when Winning Image flashed early speed for a half-mile and faded to last when making her first start on a synthetic track in the Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters, a race won by Groupie Doll.

Although Winning Image’s local record is hard to knock, she’s no cinch in a good field that includes Geeky Gorgeous, who beat males last time out for her second straight stakes victory at Monmouth Park; Evening Show, who adds blinkers after beginning her 2013 campaign with three blow-out victories and a pair of runner-up finishes; and Atthispointintime, a winner of four straight against non-stakes competition.

The 4-year-old Geeky Gorgeous comes in from New Jersey for trainer Daniel Lopez three weeks after coming from off the pace to defeat male rivals in the New Jersey Breeders’ Handicap. The last time she came back in 21 days or less following a winning effort, Geeky Gorgeous scored by 2 3/4 lengths in September 2012.

Evening Show began her 4-year-old season by winning three straight races by a combined margin of 34 lengths. She settled for second as the heavy favorite in each of her last two starts. Trainer Kathleen DeMasi is putting blinkers on Evening Show for the first time, an angle that has produced 16 percent success (3 for 19) and a profitable $2.96 return on investment with runners returning from a break of 31 to 60 days the past five years.

Atthispointintime cuts back to a sprint following a dominant victory going a mile in a third-level optional $40,000 claimer.

The co-featured First Responder is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf, but with rain in the forecast, there’s a chance it will be contested on either soft ground or moved to the main track.

On turf, the prime contenders are Exclusive Strike and Derby Kitten, both from the barns of out-of-town trainers with exceptional records shipping to Parx.

The 6-year-old Exclusive Strike, beaten less than three lengths in the Grade 1 Man o’ War two starts ago, is trained by Jason Servis. Over the past two seasons, Servis is 11 for 33 (33 percent) at Parx. This season, he has sent out the runner-up in three of Parx’s top turf stakes – the Grade 3 Turf Monster, Grade 3 Parx Dash, and the Turf Amazon.

The last time Exclusive Strike raced on non-firm turf, he won by four lengths.

Derby Kitten races for Mike Maker, whose record at Parx the past two years is 8 for 14 (57 percent). The 5-year-old Derby Kitten comes off a win as the 8-5 favorite in the Cliff Guilliams Handicap on closing day at Ellis Park.

If the race comes off the turf, the advantage swings to main-track-only entrants Ponzi Scheme and Norman Asbjornson. Ponzi Scheme finished 11 1/2 lengths ahead of Norman Asbjornson when they met in the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup in late July, but Norman Asbjornson is 4 for 7 at Parx, compared with Ponzi’s Scheme’s 1-for-8 local record.