For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 215.639.9000 ext. 3290 or 3329 Contact: Keith Jones, Announcer – Philadelphia Park @ kjones@parxracing.com
VALID TOPS FIELD FOR SATURDAY’S TURNING FOR HOME
This Saturday Parx Racing and the local horsemen’s community will honor the Turning for Home Program, the highly successful thoroughbred retirement program started seven years ago last month by the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association. In those seven years, the program has found new homes and careers for nearly 1,600 retired race horses and has become the model program for the industry. In addition to festivities designed to highlight the outstanding work done by Turning for Home, the day will be capped off by a $75,000 stake named for the program, a one mile and seventy yard main track test that drew 14 entrants.
The 3-1 morning line favorite and breaking from post one is Crossed Sabres Farm’s Valid. The 5 year-old gelded son of Medaglia D’Oro is a multiple graded winner and is coming off a 2014 season that saw him win five races and better than $333,000. His signature win came last July when he captured the G2 Monmouth Cup at Monmouth Park. He hasn’t quite found the same form so far this year, his lone win in six starts coming in February when he battled almost the entire way to prevail in the G3 Fred Hooper at Gulfstream. He ran big the next time out as well, finishing third beaten only a length by Honor Code and Private Zone in the G2 Gulfstream Park Handicap. He does have one start over the local track. He ran second here May 2 behind Alan Goldberg’s Mezzano in a high priced allowance race going seven-eighths. Tammi Piermarini has been named to ride.
Behind Valid it looks wide open. Danny Chen’s Lucky Lotto opens at 4-1 for trainer Edward Barker. The 7 year-old gelded son of Pure Prize was claimed for just $12,500 this February and has been competitive since in high priced allowance races in New York. Marchfore Thoroughbreds’ Adirondack King and Silver Trail Stables’ Adaptor both open at 6-1. Trained by John Servis, Adirondack King’s six lifetime wins have all come here at Parx while Adaptor, racing for top trainer Ramon Preciado, was also claimed in February for $12,500 and has won three straight races since the claim. You get 8-1 on Old Time Hockey, a 6 year-old gelded stakes winning son of Smarty Jones and 10-1 on Jessica’s Star, last year’s winner of the G3 Iowa Derby and runner up in the $300K Ohio Derby.
