For Immediate Release: Saturday, October 7, 2017

POWER OF SNUNNER WINS HEAD BOB TO TAKE PLUM PRETTY

James Courtney?s Power of Snunner rallied from last in a five horse field, caught leader Trace of Grace with a sixteenth of a mile to go and then gamely won a head bobbing finish to win the $100,000 Plum Pretty Stakes Saturday afternoon at Parx. It was the second stakes victory of the year for the daughter of Power by Far. The 7 year-old mare continues to perform at a high level, winning for the ninth time in her career and pushing her lifetime earnings to just over $560,000.

Winning jockey Dana Whitney was in no hurry in the early stages, content to trail rounding the first turn, sitting about three lengths behind pace making Disco Rose. In the clear on the outside into the backstretch, Power of Snunner continued to race about three lengths from the leaders as Disco Rose got pressured nearing the half mile pole and rather readily gave up the lead to Trace of Grace. Nearing the far turn, Whitney started to ask Power of Snunner to pick it up a bit, and while she passed the tiring runners at the back, she was not making any headway on the two leaders as they passed the three-eighths pole and began to round the far turn.

She finally began to cut into the margin nearing the quarter pole and turning for home, Trace of Grace and Power of Snunner had left the others behind and it became a two horse race through the final furlong. Gaining steadily, Power of Snunner finally drew even with Trace of Grace just inside the sixteenth pole, but Trace of Grace also showed good determination and dug in. The two raced side by side in the final yards, their heads bobbing back and forth, with Power of Snunner appearing to have a very slight edge. As they hit the wire it was her nose that was down as the photo finish camera clicked. The margin of victory was a little less than a full head.

Trained by Tim Kreiser, Power of Snunner went off as the 6-5 betting favorite and returned $4.60, 3.00 and 2.20. Trace of Grace (9-2) did virtually everything but win, settled for a hard fought second and paid 5.40 and 3.40. It was another fourteen lengths back to the third horse, Mama Jones (5-1) who out finished the others for third and paid 3.00. The final time for the one mile and one-sixteenth over a track labeled fast was 1:47.68.