Battalion Runner likely to show way in Smarty Jones

With 19 days separating the $300,000 Smarty Jones from the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, the Grade 3 race is more a goal in and of itself than a prep, although it could produce a starter or two for the big event Sept. 23.

The 1 1/16-mile Smarty Jones is one of four Monday stakes at Parx. The card also includes the Grade 3, $300,000 Turf Monster at five furlongs; the Grade 3, $200,000 Greenwood Cup at 1 1/2 miles over the main track; and the $100,000 Donald LeVine Memorial, a six-furlong sprint.

The main players in the Smarty Jones are Wood Memorial runner-up Battalion Runner, lightly raced Jim Dandy fourth-place finisher Pavel, and West Virginia Derby winner Colonelsdarktemper. The seven-horse field also includes the deep closer Hence, who has turned into an all-ornothing kind of horse at 3.

The Smarty Jones will be the first start for Battalion Runner since he finished third to Practical Joke in the Dwyer at Belmont Park on July 8. Practical Joke has since come back to finish a close third in the Haskell Invitational and win the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial at seven furlongs.

Although the Dwyer was a one-turn mile, Battalion Runner has had success at two turns.

“He was a quality second in the Wood, and at Gulfstream won going two turns,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “This looks like a good spot for him.”

Battalion Runner may have the best early speed in the field. Javier Castellano will be in to ride.

Trainer Doug O’Neill made the unorthodox move of sending Pavel to the Jim Dandy at Saratoga following a debut maiden win at Santa Anita. Pavel made a three-wide bid for the lead entering the stretch, and while no match for 4 3/4-length winner Good Samaritan, he fought hard to finish in the middle of a threehorse battle for second. He ended up a head behind Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and a head in front of Preakness winner Cloud Computing.

“Turning for home, it looked like he was going to win it, then he got a little rubber-legged late,” O’Neill said. “Second time out, to go nine furlongs at Saratoga, he ran lights-out.”

While not on a par with Irap scoring his first career win in the Grade 2 Blue Grass this spring for O’Neill, Pavel’s Jim Dandy effort was not far behind it. Irap, who finished third in the Travers, is stabled at Parx and is training for the Pennsylvania Derby. Mario Gutierrez rides Pavel. Jinks Fires has trained horses for auto-racing icon A.J. Foyt Jr. for decades. Colonelsdarktemper is Foyt’s first graded stakes winner and the first for Fires since Archarcharch won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby in 2011.

Colonelsdarktemper, who is based at Churchill Downs with Fires, generally comes from just off the pace but raced on the lead en route to a one-length win in the Grade 3, $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer.

A $35,000 yearling purchase by Foyt, Colonelsdarktemper has now won $653,000. Jon Court, a winner of more than 4,000 races and Fires’s son-inlaw, has the mount.

Hence has looked excellent on occasion this season for Steve Asmussen, winning the Iowa Derby and Sunland Derby. Because of his style, however, he is pace dependent. Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. will try to mow down the competition late.