Pay the Man best of Feliciano's trio

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Trainer Miguel Feliciano holds a strong hand in the $50,000 J. William Petro Memorial Handicap on Saturday as he will saddle three of the eight fillies and mares entered. Feliciano's three horses are owned by the Pyrite Stable but will compete as separate entities in the 1 1/16-mile stakes.

Pay the Man is the strongest of the three. A multiple stakes-winning 4-year-old filly, she has been consistent throughout her 19-race career while posting a 7-1-3 record for earnings of $239,580. She was unplaced in the mile Decoration Day Handicap at Mountaineer Park in her last start on May 26, but before that won the six-furlong Angenora Stakes here on May 2. Pay the Man is a stakes winner going a middle distance and should be hard to handle in the Petro. Her regular jockey, Adam Ramgeet, will be aboard at 119 pounds.

Pay the Man's stiffest competition should come from her 5-year-old half-sister, The Lady Waffles, who is coming off an allowance win at Presque Isle going a mile. Ronnie Allen Jr. will ride at 117.

Feliciano's other entrant is Formal Arrangement, who won the 1 1/16-mile Tomboy Stakes at River Downs in her last race on Mayo21 and was second behind Pay the Man in the Angenora. Luis Gonzales will ride at 115.

"Pay the Man stumbled leaving the gate in her last start and had a terrible trip," Feliciano said. "She's the best horse in the race.

"The Lady Waffles can run, too. I might scratch Formal Arrangement and run her in the Gold Cup on June 18. It's $100,000, a mile and one-eighth, and she likes going long."