Romping maiden winner Hey Mamaluke figures to get tested

On Friday, the 3-year-old filly Hey Mamaluke will ship to Aqueduct off a 10 3/4-length debut victory. Based at Parx Racing with the family stable of Mike and Patricia Farro, she’ll meet five others in a six-furlong first-level optional claimer with a $70,000 purse.

The Farros currently have about 55 horses, and that number will grow when they set up their second string at Monmouth Park this summer. They led the Parx trainer standings in 2013, 2016, and 2017, and finished a close second last year.

Mike Farro has been training horses since 1978 and is a realist. He likes what he has seen so far from Hey Mamaluke and hopes she will be a player in Pennsylvania-bred stakes later this season.

“We expected her to run good first time out but didn’t know she was going to do that,” he said.

Farro estimates that he and Joseph Capriglione, who owns and bred Hey Mamaluke, have known each other 30 years. They claimed her dam, Pu Dew, for $5,000 at The Meadowlands in 2009. She ended her career with 18 wins from 76 starts.

Pu Dew’s first foal to race, Hey Braciole, put together a 22-5-8-2 record and earned $289,680 for Capriglione and Farro between 2016 and 2018.

“Hey Braciole was a hard-knocking filly and so was her mother,” Farro said. “When Manny [Esquivel] was breezing Hey Mamaluke before she ran, he told me she might be better than Hey Braciole.”

Esquivel was aboard for Hey Mamaluke’s win. He would have had the mount Friday, but he broke his collarbone in mid-January. Dylan Davis will ride from post 1.

Hey Mamaluke’s front-running debut victory wasn’t perfect, and she may not have beaten much. Still, she was dominant.

“I think it was a little scary out there for her and she just ran hard as she could,” Farro said. “There was a big pile of manure out in the track on the backstretch and it spooked her and she jumped. The boy almost fell, and then she just took off.”

Hey Mamaluke earned a 67 Beyer Speed Figure, which is comparable to what the fillies she will face Friday have recorded.

Todd Pletcher will send out Guacamole, who was placed first after losing a head bob at Saratoga in her debut. She has since raced in five straight stakes.

Michelle Nevin thought enough of She’s a Black Belt’s maiden win in December that she ran her back in the Ruthless Stakes here Jan. 27. She broke outward from the outside stall, stalked the pace to the quarter pole, and then tired to finish seventh and last.

Sheza Diva showed speed from between horses in the Ruthless for trainer Alejandro Maymo but also was finished early and ended up sixth.

Parx will be represented by a second starter in Amandasromeo, who will be making her first start in more than three months.

Trained by Lupe Preciado, she won a statebred maiden at Parx first time out, then was second against Pennsylvania-breds in the Mrs. Henry Paxson Memorial at Presque Isle Downs. She tired badly against open allowance rivals at Parx before being freshened.

◗ In race 1, Castle Casanova, trained by Jeremiah Englehart, and Deputy Flag, who races for Tom Morley, will square off in a New York-bred maiden race.

◗ Ironclad will be seeking his sixth win in his last seven starts in race 7, a $50,000 claiming sprint. He was claimed by Mertkan Kantamaci for $35,000 on Feb. 10.