Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Favorite Tale makes return
Parx Racing reopens Saturday following a three-week recess with its Pennsylvania’s Day at the Races program, which includes five $100,000 stakes for statebreds.
The 10-race card comprises solely Pennsylvania-bred races. In addition to the stakes, there are three maiden contests and two allowances.
The best-known horses on the card are Page McKenney, who has a 5-4-1-0 record at Parx, and, for those with a good memory, Favorite Tale, who will make his first start since March 2016.
Favorite Tale had a banner season in 2015. He won the Grade 2 Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park, earning a Win and You’re In berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. He then needed assistance from racing regulators to be able to compete in the Breeders’ Cup because of an equine herpesvirus quarantine at Parx, where he has been stabled the majority of his career.
He finished third to Runhappy and Private Zone from post 14 in the BC Sprint, then concluded the year with a victory in the $200,000 Fabulous Strike Handicap at Penn National.
Favorite Tale injured a knee in his 2016 debut and has not started since. Following surgery to clean up debris in the knee, trainer Lupe Preciado put him back in training last summer, but eventually sent him back to the farm and gave him additional time off.
Favorite Tale has been working quickly for his comeback in the Banjo Picker, a six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up.
“Right now, I like the way he is going,” Preciado said. “He is doing everything easily.”
If it takes the 6-year-old a race to shake the rust off, The Critical Way, a 3-year-old who is owned and trained by California-based Mick Ruis, could offer Favorite Tale a stiff challenge.
The Critical Way followed a May maiden win at Santa Anita with a victory in the statebred Danzig Stakes against his own age group on the Penn Mile undercard June 3 at Penn National. Midtown char lybrown, who The Critical Way defeated by a half-length in that race, also is entered in the Banjo Picker.
Page McKenney will be a solid favorite in the Roanoke, a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up.
He finished fourth, beaten 3 1/4 lengths, in his last start, the $200,000 West Virginia Governors’ Stakes on Aug. 5 at Mountaineer Park. The off-theboard finish was his first in 29 races dating back to April 2014.
Page McKenney spent time on a farm using hydrotherapy prior to the Mountaineer race to relieve tenderness in his heels, according to trainer Mary Eppler.
“I think the time he spent on the farm did him a lot of good,” Eppler said. “He came back from the race very well.”
The top three finishers from the Robellino Stakes at Penn National also are entered. The Robellino was scheduled to be run at 1 1/16 miles on turf but was moved to the main track.
Spring Quality, a lightly raced and improving 5-yearold trained by Graham Motion, closed late to defeat Edge of Reality by a neck. It was another neck back to Grasshoppin in third.
Spring Quality is now 4 for 6 in his career and enters the Roanoke off two consecutive wins.
The Teresa Garofalo Memorial is a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares. David Jacobson claimed expected favorite Discreet Senorita for $62,000 out of an optional-claiming victory June 15 at Belmont Park.
She won the statebred Foxy J.G. Stakes at Parx in her prior start and won the Garofalo as a 3-year-old in 2015. Discreet Senorita has started three times this year following a 15-month layoff.
Although six furlongs is shorter than optimum for Power of Snunner, she did win the Foxy J.G. at seven furlongs in 2015. Power of Snunner, 7, won the $100,000 Obeah going 1 1/8 miles at Delaware Park in June.
Grand Prix won the New Start Stakes for 3-year-old statebred fillies on the Penn Mile undercard and comes into this off a first-level allowance victory against open company at Penn National.
The Marshall Jenney, a fivefurlong turf sprint has drawn a wide-open field of 10. Rapid Dan, a 6-year-old gelding, closed from well back to win a no-conditions turf sprint at Laurel Park in his last start for trainer Gary Capuano.
Firsthand Report, a 4-yearold filly, won the Power By Far Stakes over this course and distance in July. Fat Kat, a 6-year-old mare whom she defeated, is fast and also entered in the Jenney.
The Mrs. Penny, a 1 1/16mile turf race for fillies and mares, will rematch Great Soul and Imply, who finished first and second over Tapeta in the Northern Fling Stakes at Presque Isle Downs in July. Great Soul has since come back to win an open second-level turf optional claimer at Monmouth Park.
True Egyptian, 2 for 3 this year, also merits attention.