Grade 3 Doc Penny Memorial Here Tuesday

Top Jockeys Set to Ride
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Keith Jones
kjones@parxracing.com

For Immediate Release: Monday, July 1, 2013 215.639.9000 ext. 3290 or 3329 Contact: Keith Jones, Announcer – Philadelphia Park @ kjones@parxracing.com

GRADE 3 DOC PENNY MEMORIAL TOMORROW AT PARX Some of Nation’s Top Riders Set to Compete

Tuesday afternoon, Parx Racing will host the first of eight graded stakes on its calendar, the G3 $250,000 Dr. James Penny Memorial Handicap. The 15th running of the stake that honors the track’s long time chief veterinarian is the track’s premier distance turf race for older fillies and mares run over the grass course at one mile and one-sixteenth. A field of eight that includes five graded winners is set to go post ward with some of the nation’s best jockeys named to ride.

The 5-2 morning line favorite is William Punk, Jr’s Hessonite. The five year-old Freud mare was the runner up in this race last year and sports an amazing record of 10 wins in 20 career starts. A multiple stakes winner last year, she opened her 2013 campaign with a victory May 4th in the G3 Beaugay Handicap at Belmont Park. She didn’t seem to care for the soft turf in her most recent start, a well-beaten sixth as the favorite over a boggy course in the G2 Sheepshead Bay also at Belmont. Trainer David Donk has named two-time Eclipse winner John Velazquez to ride.

Opening as second choice at 3-1 is Miz Ida. Racing for Bertram and Elaine & Richard Klein, the four year-old Proud Citizen filly is another horse that loves to win, victorious in 7 of 12 lifetime. Trained by Steve Margolis, she is a multiple graded winner, winning the G3 Valley View last October at Keeneland and the G3 Mint Julep Stakes at Churchill in her most recent start June 6th. She’s shown the ability to handle a variety of surfaces, winning on courses from yielding to firm. Her regular rider Shaun Bridgmohan takes the mount.

Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will be here to ride Pianist who opens at 9-2. The four year-old More Than Ready filly is owned by Hidden Brook Farm & Dan Zucker and is coming off the first graded win of her career. On Preakness day at Pimlico, she pulled off a mild upset when she went wire to wire in the G3 Gallorette Handicap at 6-1. She’s also a fifty percent winner, taking 5 of her 10 lifetime starts for trainer Chad Brown.

Rounding out the field are Laughing and Dinner’s Out (5-1 entry for trainer Alan Goldberg), Peace Preserver (7-2, Todd Pletcher), Somali Lemonade (8-1, Michael Matz and jockey Joel Rosario – winner of this year’s Dubai World Cup on Animal Kingdom and this year’s Kentucky Derby aboard Orb), and Naples Bay (12-1, Christophe Clement).