Proforma needs better break

Proforma didn’t get away from the gate well in the Chick Lang Stakes on Preakness Day at Pimlico but figures to be a main player Saturday at Monmouth Park in the $60,000 Jersey Shore Stakes. The Chick Lang and Jersey Shore are both six-furlong stakes for 3-yearolds.

Proforma went into the Chick Lang off a five-month layoff. He concluded his 2-year-old season by winning a Churchill Downs maiden race and the Sugar Bowl Stakes at Fair Grounds.

Proforma has worked three times at trainer Mike Stidham’s Fair Hill Training Center base since his fifth-place finish in the Chick Lang behind the speedy Recruiting Ready and should move forward Saturday. Joe Bravo rides.

Derek’s Smile is the other stakes winner in the field. He has made his last three starts on turf for trainer Kelly Breen, including a win in the Texas Glitter at Gulfstream Park. Derek’s Smile is fast and will be prominent from the start under Paco Lopez.

Breen also has entered Cohen’s Cat, who will be making his first start since finishing third in the $200,000 Jean Lafitte at Delta Downs last October. Cohen’s Cat went into that stakes off wins in a Parx allowance and a Monmouth maiden race.

John Servis also has two entered in the seven-horse Jersey Shore. Leading rider Nik Juarez will be aboard Alex Again, who will be shortening up in distance after finishing second in a pair of two-turn races: an optional claimer at Parx and the Parx Derby.

Servis’s other runner is Even Thunder, who finished second in both the Grade 3 Bay Shore and Jimmy Winkfield stakes at Aqueduct prior to running eighth in the Chick Lang after a poor start.

Space Shuttle and Storming My Way both come into the Jersey Shore off wins. Space Shuttle won a Monmouth maiden race while making his first start since being transferred to trainer Derek Ryan. Storming My Way won a Parx allowance on June 13 for Eddie Plesa Jr.

Parx: Turning for Home

Saturday is Turning for

Home Day at Parx Racing. The afternoon’s races will recognize and raise funds for the track’s Thoroughbred retirement program.

Turning for Home was established by the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association at Parx in 2008 and has found homes for more than 1,800 horses. More than 85 percent of the group’s funding comes from Parx owners, jockeys, the PTHA, track management, and the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association.

The featured race of the day will be the $100,000 Turning for Home. A stakes for 3-yearolds and up in past runnings, Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile race is for horses who have started for a $16,000 claiming price or less in 2016-17.

The changes were made by Sam Elliott, the director of racing at Parx, to draw a larger field and to include the type of horses who generally come through the Turning for Home retirement program.

“If you run a $100,000 stakes on the East Coast in the summer, you too often get seven horses and scratch down to five,” Elliott said. “I also think this race is appropriate because the horses Turning for Home places are claiming horses.”

Last year’s Turning for Home had six entrants and five starters. A field of 11 is entered for Saturday.

To run in the Turning for Home, an owner must pay $100 to enter and $200 to start. All of those funds will be donated to the Turning for Home program, totaling $3,300 if all of the entrants go postward.

Maritime Pulpit comes into the race off consecutive wins for trainer Jorge Navarro. Zanotti, trained by Carlo Guerrero, also has won two in a row and hasn’t finished worse than second in five starts since being claimed for $30,000 last November.

The card ends on a strong note: The Turning for Home is surrounded by three allowance races. Immediately preceding the Turning for Home is a no-conditions, six-furlong sprint with a $55,000 purse. The contenders include Requite, Awesome Speed, and an aptly named horse for the Turning for Home card, Long May You Run.