Skip to content
Sports
Link copied to clipboard

Parx’s Spun to Run is among the Pennsylvania Derby favorites, and three Philly horses are in the Cotillion.

In the 82 runnings of Parx's marquee races, only five horses based at Parx have won. Maximum Security, who would have been the favorite, is scratched due to an illness.

Spun To Run #3 with Paco Lopez riding won the $100,000 Smarty Jones Stakes (Grade III) at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania on September 2, 2019.
Spun To Run #3 with Paco Lopez riding won the $100,000 Smarty Jones Stakes (Grade III) at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pennsylvania on September 2, 2019.Read moreBill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO

Saturday will mark the 40th Pennsylvania Derby and 44th Cotillion run at Keystone/Philadelphia Park/Parx Racing. The Derby began in 1979, five years after the track opened. There was no race in 2006 because of slot machines taking over the grandstand. The Cotillion was first run at Liberty Bell Park in 1969 and made its Keystone debut in 1975. The race was not run in 1991.

In the 82 runnings of the track’s marquee races, only five horses based at Parx have won — Pennsylvania-bred Thelastcrusade (1992) and Devil’s Honor (1996) in the Derby and recent Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee My Juliet (1975), Skipping Around (1999), and Jostle (2000) in the Cotillion.

One Parx horse, Spun to Run, will run in the Derby. And with the race’s marquee attraction, Maximum Security, scratched with a colon issue, Spun to Run, winner of the Smarty Jones Stakes on Labor Day at Parx, becomes a more-serious contender.

Three Parx horses — 2018 2-year-old filly champion Jaywalk and long shots Afleet Destiny and Collegeville Girl — will run in the Cotillion.

Spun to Run is “doing great, training phenomenal,” trainer Carlos Guerrero said.

His exercise rider told him: “He’s doing better than before" the Smarty Jones Stakes.

With the field down to six, Spun to Run likely will be the fourth choice behind Kentucky Derby favorite Improbable, Preakness winner War of Will, and Mr. Money -- with four straight wins in second-tier stakes have him closing on $1 million in 2019 earnings.

Jaywalk was a dominant champion last year, winning her final four races, three by significant margins. She is not running any faster, which is why she was a beaten favorite in three 2019 stakes, with her lone win coming in the Delaware Oaks.

Jaywalk, who is trained by John Servis, will need her best day to win the Cotillion. Joel Rosario, who rode her to wins in the Grade I Frizette Stakes and Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last year, is back on her for the first time since March. That might help. The 11 post in an 11-horse field might hurt.

Jaywalk’s co-owner, Chuck Zacney of Afleet Alex fame, has reserved the old director’s room on the fifth floor for 75 friends.

“I’ve got plenty of action coming up," Zacney said.

In addition to Jaywalk, he has five other horses in at Parx and another in a $200,000 stake at Laurel

“Hopefully, it’s a fun, fruitful day on Saturday,” Zacney said.

Afleet Destiny is from the barn of trainer Uriah St. Lewis, who has a unique approach. He runs seemingly overmatched horses in stakes races all over the East. It worked so well with $10,000-purchase Discreet Lover that the horse has more than $1 million in earnings.

Afleet Destiny, who cost $35,000, has one win in 14 races. But she finished second in one stake, third in another, and fourth in four others. She has earned $183,380.

Collegeville Girl won her debut in July at Saratoga. She was 9-1. It was a very good day for trainer Richie Vega, majority owner Bob Brittingham (one of five original partners in Afleet Alex) and longtime owners Sal DeBunda and Steve Appel of the Wire to Wire Stable.

DeBunda is a Center City attorney, president of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and a member of the Pennsylvania State Racing Commission. Appel, orthodontist to the stars, including Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens, at his Northeast Philly office, has owned horses for 40 years.

The day before last year’s Travers Stakes at Saratoga, Collegeville Girl was an odds-on favorite in a $200,000 New York-bred stakes. If she broke out of the gate with no problems, she likely had the race at her mercy. She reared up in the gate, was scratched, and ended up with cuts on her shins.

Collegeville Girl developed a lung infection after her comeback race in November at Aqueduct.

“Here is a horse that cost us $18,000 and it cost us $25,000 to keep her in the hospital for a month” after the lung infection, Appel said.

She finally seemed to have made it all the way back to her summer 2018 form with a big win at Parx on Aug. 31. But this is a major step up in class.

“I’ve been in the sport at the lowest levels,” Appel said, “and to get a chance to compete on the highest level is really pretty exciting after 40 years in the business.”