Hail Hail, the gang is almost here. Horse racing bettors await the finalized field for the betParx Pennsylvania Derby on September 24 with growing anticipation. This is not simply a Grade I, 1 1/8-mile race. It is not simply a $1 million showcase, impressive as that is all by itself. This is the day the nation’s top horses, trainers and jockeys assemble at Parx Casino and Racing in Bensalem, making it the center of the horse-racing industry. Parx is only racetrack in the country to host two one-million dollar Grade 1 stakes races – the Cotillion and the betParx Pennsylvania Derby– on the same day.
Parx unfurls a dynamite horse racing card with nearly $4 million in purses, including a second $1 million race for fillies, the Cotillion Stakes. It’s a mini-Breeders Cup.
Pennsylvania Derby Day features 10 races worth at least $200,000, as the track tries to corner the gambling market with a blockbuster menu. This relatively-recent industry tactic has produced significant betting handle at race tracks, especially on Saturdays.
PlayPennsylvania will be updating news, the final field and post positions for the Pennsylvania Derby.
28 3-year-olds are nominated and under consideration to run in the betPARX Pennsylvania Derby. Possible participants are headlined by Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike. Taiba, who is trained by Bob Baffert, is also a probable starter. One of Baffert’s horses have won the Pennsylvania Derby three times since 2014.
Other possibilities include Cyberknife (Haskell winner. second in the $1.25 million Travers), Zandon (third in the Travers. Simplification, the Fountain of Youth winner at Gulfstream Park, is also listed as probable for this year’s Derby.
The Pennsylvania Derby may become a hybrid of the nation’s best races this year. That includes graduates of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, along with the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, and possibly the Travers from Saratoga.
Likely starter is Taiba turned the racing world on its ear in the spring. He authored Beyer Speed figures (which measures a horse’s time in one race versus variables like the racing surface and the track record) at more than 100 in his first two races. He won the Santa Anita Derby in just his second start.
Taiba entered the Kentucky Derby in his third race and ran well to the turn, but could not get the 1 1/4 distance in good shape. He finished 12th. Two months later, he lost a thrilling stretch duel to Cyberknife in the 1 1/8 mile Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey.
Should Taiba triumph, he would make Baffert the first trainer with four Pennsylvania Derby victories.
“He has been training well,” Baffert told the Paulick Report. “I thought his Haskell was really strong and he got beat by a nice horse (Cyberknife). He is doing well right now.
- The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Association (PHRA)’s Virtual Reality Racing Experience (for 13+), the top horse racing VR experience in the country, will be available to guests, placing them right in the jockey’s seat.
- PHRA’s bar trailer will be serving the event’s specialty beer, “Chomping at the Bit,” a New England-style Hazy IPA brewed by Urban Village.
- Children are invited to join in a RODY Pony Dash in which they bounce their way across the finish line on inflatable toy ponies.
- Live music by Bigg Romeo band, pony rides, a bounce house, and horseshoe decorating, proceeds of which will support the high-quality after care provided to racehorses.
- Former NBA and St. Joe’s star and current assistant GM for the Delaware Bluecoats Jameer Nelson will be signing autographs in the picnic grove from 2:30 – 3:30 pm. Nelson will also call out “Rider’s Up”- the indication for jockeys to mount and the horses to make their way toward the racetrack during the event’s live broadcast.
Original source credited to playpennsylvania.com
