Reid splitting up stakes winners after big day

Butch Reid enjoyed a tidy day on a four-stakes card at Parx Racing last Saturday, striking with Ponder and Dream in the $100,000 Lil E. Tee and Maximus Meridius in the $100,000 Banjo Picker. The statebred stablemates will likely part ways for their next starts.

Of the trainer’s two stakes victories, Ponder and Dream’s was inarguably more emphatic, as the 3-year-old colt never trailed and kicked clear by 14 3/4 lengths. He earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.

After such an improved effort at one mile and 70 yards, Ponder and Dream will now be pointed to the $200,000 Smarty Jones, going 1 1/16 miles at Parx on Aug. 18, which functions as the local prep for the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby.

“He makes the lead and he’s really turning into a real useful horse,” Reid said. “We’ve got a couple things still that we can work on with him. I think he can be a little better than he was the other day, but that was certainly a good performance and the numbers came back real good on the race.”

Maximus Meridius, a 5-year-old gelding who won the Banjo Picker off a nearly six-month layoff, still has not shaken his habit of letting challengers stick around, much to Reid’s chagrin. But after winning by a neck in his return to Parx, he could be ready for his third trip to Saratoga next month.

In his two career starts at the New York track, Maximus Meridius finished eighth in the 2024 edition of the Grade 1 Woody Stephens and fifth in a $120,000 allowance last year.

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