Do the ‘Math’: Ex-claimer stuns G1 Penn Derby field

Instead of providing clarification, Saturday’s Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby created more confusion in horse racing’s inscrutable 3-year-old male division.

Sent off at 31-1 odds, ex-claimer Math Wizard won the $1 million race by a neck at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa. That snapped a six-race losing streak for the Algorithms colt since beating $25,000 claimers Jan. 31 at Gulfstream Park. Earlier at Gulfstream, Math Wizard was third against $16,000 maidens going six furlongs in a race won by Maximum Security, the disqualified winner of the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Math Wizard placed fourth in the inaugural Oaklawn Invitational May 4 at Oaklawn Park, from which winner Laughing Fox went on to the Preakness. The chestnut colt’s best finish in four other stakes races, all graded, was second in the Ohio Derby.

Switching to jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., Math Wizard came from well off the pace and ran down pacesetter Mr. Money in the final sixteenth of a mile. Preakness winner War of Will was another length back, nosing out Grade 1 winner Improbable in the latter’s second race since the May 18 Preakness.

Improbable started poorly for jockey Mike Smith, who placed the City Zip colt in stalking position down the backstretch. Runner-up in Oaklawn’s Grade 1 Arkansas Derby and Grade 2 Rebel (first division), Improbable got through on the rail turning for home but could not pass Mr. Money, winner of four straight graded stakes for trainer Bret Calhoun.

Only seven went in the Pennsylvania Derby, from which Maximum Security (colic) and juvenile champion Game Winner (virus) dropped out early last week. Improbable represented trainer Bob Baffert, who won the race the last two years.

Claimed three times in his 13-race career, Math Wizard paid

$64.20, $12 and $4.80 after nine furlongs in 1:50.94. He earned

$600,000 for a group of owners including trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

* A slow workout prompted trainer Richard Mandella to change plans for Omaha Beach, unraced since winning the Arkansas Derby in April.

Mandella ruled out next week’s Grade 3 Ack Ack at Churchill Downs in favor of the Grade

1 $300,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship Oct. 5. Omaha Beach worked seven furlongs in

1:27.20 Friday at Santa Anita Park, reportedly after a rider in front of the colt fell from his horse, forcing Omaha Beach to make a second try.

“I needed that to be good in order to run him next week in Kentucky,” Mandella said, “so I decided to stay here and run him in the sprint.”

An entrapped epiglottis knocked Omaha Beach out of the Kentucky Derby and a virus making its rounds through the barn area at Del Mar cost him a start in the track’s Aug. 25 Shared Belief, won by Improbable.