Weekend GamePlan for Sept. 19, 2026: Picks for Pennsylvania Derby, Cotillion, Dogwood

The big race this weekend in North America will be over before the weekend really commences. Friday’s Jockey Club Gold Cup opens the new Belmont Park and marks the return to America of Japanese dirt star Forever Young. Saturday marks Parx Racing’s one day in the national spotlight.

Pennsylvania Derby

The Pennsylvania Derby from the start felt like a race worth pursuing in the hunt for value. It took sorting through several possibilities, but Sassmaster might prove a more serious racehorse than his name.

I put three of the race’s entrants in the “no chance” tier. Above that trio sit Zihnal, Igniter, and Talk to Me Jimmy. The latter two are pace factors suspect over nine furlongs. Zihnal got a longer look, but his West Virginia Derby, despite the easy win, didn’t do much for me, and Zihnal could get buried on the periodically dead Parx rail.

Iron Honor, The Puma, and Further Ado all graduated from the Triple Crown trail, though The Puma didn’t make a Triple Crown race after being scratched from the Derby. As this year has worn on, the 3-year-old crop has looked increasingly iffy – the winter and spring Florida sophomores especially. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that third-time starter Leading Change jumped from the Indiana Derby into a Travers win.

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I’m looking for a fresh face again, and that rules out three relatively short prices, though, to be sure, Iron Honor, The Puma, and Further Ado all can win. Iron Honor and The Puma each add blinkers; not a big fan of that move at this level and so far along into the season. Further Ado has a strong work video for this start but always works well and has not progressed all summer.

That leaves Our Moneyman and Sassmaster. I do believe Our Moneyman can come closer to Further Ado on Saturday than he did in the Matt Winn in June, but Sassmaster has all the upside to me.

The horse he beat in his long-layoff comeback at Churchill, Preside, returned to win two in a row, each with a strong figure. Sassmaster not only turned him back, Preside never got past on the gallop-out. Sassmaster didn’t run as fast at Saratoga but pulled a far more demanding trip in that allowance and dealt with it professionally. The colt, by Curlin, absolutely looks the part, and he more than held his own working with the likes of Renegade and Ted Noffey. He has positional pace but an adaptable running style, a new face in a suspect division who can win the Pennsylvania Derby.

Cotillion

I liked Bodacious Bay quite a bit in the Monmouth Oaks on July 25. Others liked her, too: The filly was privately purchased after the race and makes her first start for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

Joseph also trains My Miss Mo, another Cotillion runner and winner of the Monmouth Oaks by 1 1/2 lengths over Bodacious Bay. Bodacious Bay can turn the tables on her new stablemate and perhaps take down strong favorite Always a Runner.

My Miss Mo got the ideal Monmouth trip, coasting along on a slow pace before an upper-stretch burst propelled her to an insurmountable lead. It all came too fast for Bodacious Bay, who got outfooted from the quarter pole and never could get back on terms. Bodacious Bay held appeal at Monmouth because of all the encouraging things she did in her first three races. She’ll benefit from that start, and her one Saratoga work on video offered plenty of encouragement.

I’m just starting to wonder if Always a Runner didn’t come to a quick peak while getting the right trip winning the Oaks. She was no match for Counting Stars in the Acorn and retreated tamely through the final furlong of the CCA Oaks. A class drop and a freshening might work wonders, but at the expected odds, I’ll guess it doesn’t.

Dogwood

Conceit not only made her stakes debut, but she made a tough cutback from routes and a one-turn mile to win the Audubon Oaks over seven furlongs last out. Watch the race closely and you might, as I have, conclude she was a more dominant winner than her bare margin of victory.

Caught between horses in upper stretch, Conceit had runner-up A Fine Chardonnay measured through the final furlong and looked much the best to me. She’s come back with a strong work pattern and has sufficient upside that I can see her taking down odds-on favorite Explora, drawn poorly on the rail.

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