Wet track-loving Lonesome Boy upsets City of Brotherly Love Stakes

Lonesome Boy upset favored Guanare on Tuesday in the $75,000 City of Brotherly Love, a mile and 70-yard stakes for 3-year-olds at Parx Racing.

Although Lonesome Boy brought an unexciting record of two wins from nine starts into the City of Brotherly Love, both of those victories came over wet tracks, and the colt seemed to love the sloppy conditions.

Trained by Hugo Padilla for owner John E. Parker, Lonesome Boy pressed pacesetter Le Vin from the outside through splits of 22.93 and 47.05 seconds before poking a head in front of that foe after six furlongs in 1:12.87.

Guanare loomed outside Lonesome Boy at the three-sixteenths pole but drifted out significantly at that juncture, losing important momentum.

Conversely, Lonesome Boy remained straight as an arrow under jockey Adam Bowman to prevail by 6 3/4 lengths in 1:44.60 over the sloppy track. He paid $23.60 as the fifth choice in the wagering.

Guanare held second, three-quarters of a length ahead of third-place finisher Le Vin. Just Step On It, Capo, and Carry Grant completed the order of finish. Facenda and American War Hero were scratched.

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Bred in Washington by Pat Chinn and Mullan Chinn’s Vital Signs Stable, Lonesome Boy graduated in his seventh start, his final race of 2023, when wiring a $40,000 maiden-claiming group at Parx by 12 1/4 lengths.

He shipped to Aqueduct for his 3-year-old debut and was successful in a $50,000 starter allowance. Lonesome Boy made his final prep for the City of Brotherly Love 15 days ago when finishing behind both Just Step On It and Le Vin as the beaten favorite in a first-level allowance at Parx.

Lonesome Boy is out of the unraced Atta Boy Roy mare Atta Girl Pearl, a half-sister to stakes-placed dirt performers Three Forks Gold and Val de Saire. He has earned $126,444.

Main Line Stakes

Jeanne Marie overcame significant obstacles when wiring her field in the co-featured Main Line Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, also at a mile and 70 yards.

Not only was Jeanne Marie returning from a 232-day layoff, but she had never raced beyond 4 1/2 furlongs, and had never started on a wet track.

No problem.

Trained by Butch Reid, Jeanne Marie bounced right to the lead and the rail under Mychel Sanchez, controlled fractions of 23.67 and 48.02 seconds while prompted by odds-on favorite Experimental, turned that one away after a six-furlong clocking in 1:15.01, and kept finding more.

Jeanne Marie completed the trip in 1:41.88 while 2 1/2 lengths better than uncoupled stablemate Kiss for Luck. Experimental was another five lengths back in third.

Then came Maria Says So, Éclair Blanc, Sweet Distraction, and Molly Malone. Aoife’s Magic and Phabulous Phoebe were scratched. Jeanne Marie returned $4.60 as the second choice in the betting.

“She always gave us the idea from the beginning that she’s a quality filly,” trainer Butch Reid said. “She had an opportunity to prove it today. There wasn’t a whole lot of pace in front of her, and she was fresh off the layoff. [Sanchez] did a great job taking advantage of it and put her on the lead and got her to relax. That helped her get the [distance] off the layoff.”

A homebred daughter of Speightster owned by Cash Is King and LC Racing, Jeanne Marie was foaled in Pennsylvania. Her dam, the Medaglia d’Oro mare Bouquet of Gold, is a half-sister to Grade 2-placed router Barossa. The second dam, Bouquet Booth (by Flower Alley), won the Grade 3 Delta Princess Stakes at one mile in 2010.

Jeanne Marie made her debut last June 18 in a maiden special weight at Parx, finishing second to the Reid-trained Carmelina, who has since captured three stakes and recently finished second in Aqueduct’s Busher Invitational.

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Jeanne Marie graduated the following month in a maiden special weight restricted to Pennsylvania-breds before going to the sidelines.

“She had a little bit of bone bruising,” Reid said. “A couple of little physical things. She was kind of on the small side. We wanted to give her a chance to let her grow up a little bit.”

Reid called the Main Line a “fallback” spot for Jeanne Marie’s seasonal debut as a couple of first-level statebred allowance races failed to fill.

“She had been ready to run for over a month. We didn’t want to get her overready,” Reid said.

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