What do the race horses Wait For It, Page McKenney, and Unique Bella have in common? They are all notable stakes winners born in Pennsylvania. April 22, 2026 marks the beginning of the Pennsylvania-bred stakes series totaling twenty races beginning at Parx Racing with the Wait For It Stakes, the Page McKenney Handicap, and the Unique Bella Stakes. The series continues throughout the year with races at Parx Racing, Penn National, and Presque Isle Downs and offers $1,700,000 in purses for registered Pennsylvania-breds. The stakes are named after exceptional Pennsylvania-bred race horses.
Kim Pratt Photo
The Wait For It Stakes going six furlongs for three year olds and up that are PA-bred and PA-sired with a purse of $75,000 is named after the gelding Wait For It by PA sire, Uptowncharlybrown. He is a multiple stakes winner retired with forty starts, twelve wins, eight seconds, three thirds, and earnings of $726,593. He raced six seasons for owner Uptowncharlybrown Stud LLC and was trained by Parx trainer Eddie Coletti, Jr.
“Wait For It was a special horse, and we had lots of fun with him,” said trainer Eddie Coletti, Jr. “He was easy to train, and he ran on anything. His best distance was 7 furlongs or one mile, and he ran hard every time. He is one of the bigger Uptowncharlybrowns, and he developed late in his three-year old year. He was a big two-year old, and he really took off in the fall of his three-year old year,” Coletti said.
Wait For It broke his maiden second time out at Parx in 2017, and he won an allowance race at Penn National in his first start at three. He won the Hard Spun Stales at Presque Isle Downs in 2020 and 2021, and the Storm Cat Stakes and the Page McKenney Handicap at Parx. “I think his best race was the Grade3 Pimlico Stakes in 2019. He was fourth, but the distance was changed, and he just got beat. He ran a great race,” Coletti said. Wait For It retired in 2022.
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Also on the April 22nd card at Parx is the Page McKenney Handicap, named after a Mid-Atlantic favorite and Parx Hall of Famer, Page McKenney. The race is for three-year olds and up going six furlongs with a purse of $100,000. Page McKenney began his racing career in the claiming ranks and blossomed into a graded stakes winner of over $1.9 million. He was claimed at Penn National for $16,000 and continued improving. A consistent performer, Page McKenney retired after fifty-eight starts with twenty-two wins, eleven seconds, and five thirds. He won at Laurel, Parx, Penn National, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, Colonial Downs, and Pimlico. Based at Pimlico, he was trained by Mary Eppler He was named Pennsylvania -bred Horse of the Year in 2015 and was inducted into the Parx Hall of Fame. His graded stakes wins include the Grade 3 General George Stakes in 2016 and the Grade 3 Salvator Mile in 2018. He retired in 2018, and fox hunted during the 2022-23 season with Jazz Napravnik in Maryland. “I was hunting Page through the 2022-23 season, and he was wonderful,” said Napravnik. “When I asked his owners to come back for the 23-24 season, they informed me that they were so happy to see him on the farm everyday that they decided to keep him in full retirement,” Napravnik said. He is back with his breeder and owner, Jim Bryant.
Also on the April 22nd card and named after the exceptional Eclipse Award winning filly, Unique Bella, the Unique Bella Stakes is for Pennsylvania-bred fillies and mares three years old and up going six furlongs with a purse of $100,000. Unique Bella was bred in Pennsylvania by Betty Moran’s Brushwood Stables and was sold at Keeneland Sales as a yearling to Don Alberto Corporation for $400,000. A blue blood pedigree, she is by Tapit out of Breeders Cup Distaff winner, Unrivaled Belle by Unbridled Song. She is a multiple graded stakes winner, but she never raced in Pennsylvania. She was trained by Jerry Hollendorfer and based in California where she won four graded stakes in a row. In 2017, she won the Eclipse Award for champion female sprinter, and in 2018, she won the Eclipse Award for champion older dirt female. She retired in 2018 after an ankle injury with twelve starts, nine wins, two seconds and earnings of $1,272,400, and she is now part of Don Alberto’s elite broodmare band.
Cover Photo Credit to Kim Pratt
