KY horses, trainers in the news for Parx showcase card
Today’s Pennsylvania Derby and Cotillion media notes, with Kentucky horses and horsemen prominent. Renee Torbit/Coady Media photo above of the Doug Cowans-trained Next and jockey Luan Machado after winning Churchill Downs’ Isaac Murphy Marathon
Next up for Next is Parx’s Greenwood Cup
Next.
That would be two things.
It’s the name of a horse that has been chewing up marathon races over the last two years.
And it would be the name of the race upcoming for the 6-year-old gelding. That is the 1 1/2-mile, Grade 3, $200,000 Greenwood Cup Saturday at Parx Racing.
Next, owned by Michael Foster and trained by Turfway Park-based Doug Cowans, could very well be the most anticipated horse on the betPARX Pennsylvania Derby Day card after Grade 1 Cotillion favorite Thorpedo Anna.
And, why not?
He won the Greenwood Cup last year by a whopping 25 lengths. He has won his last six starts by a combined 81 3/4 lengths, all at marathon distances.
“I don’t know,” Next’s trainer Doug Cowans said with a laugh, “he just has more stamina than any horse I have ever trained. He just really enjoys these marathon races. Once he gets into his rhythm, he just does his thing.”
Next was claimed out of a 7-furlong dirt race by Cowans in 2022 and, after two 1 1/8-mile races on grass, the gelding’s future was cast. He ran in a 1 1/2 mile off-the-turf stakes at Delaware Park and romped by 18 1/4 lengths and the legend of Next had started.
When other horses start to fade in these long runs, Next is just getting warmed up.
“Shortly after I got the horse, we realized he had some unusual stamina,” Cowans said. “I didn’t really know if he would do marathon races because no one knows until you try it. We noticed unusual things about the horse and the stamina. We thought it would be a good idea at some point to try it and it wasn’t long after that we did try it.”
And Cowans has never looked back. Next is a striking gray, just another reason that he draws fans in. When he gets into his long stride at the top of the stretch and begins distancing himself from his competition, crowds go wild.
In his last start, Next only drew three opponents in the Birdstone at Saratoga and he rolled by 22 1/4 lengths. He has three graded stakes wins on his resume, including the Grade 2 Brooklyn Stakes the last two years.
Cowans said he has no interest in shortening Next up and seeing what he could do in Grade 1 races.
“Everyone but me wants to see that,” he said. “For me, when you train horses, you are always trying to figure out what they want to do. Once you find that, I don’t know why you would get away from that.”
Jockey Luan Machado, Next’s partner the last nine starts, will be aboard again in the Greenwood Cup, which drew a field of 10. Next is the 1-5 morning-line favorite in the race, but Cowans is not taking it for granted.
“You never know,” he said. “I don’t want to discount any horse. There might be another horse that can step up and do this. Maybe the race would be on that point. Maybe there is a day he throws craps, I don’t know. Until then, I expect the horse to come and perform like he always has because he is doing as good as he has ever been.”
– Tim Wilkin
Tarifa on target for Cotillion assignment
Louisville-based Brad Cox drew up a plan for Tarifa late this spring.
Godolphin’s homebred Bernardini filly finished a non-threatening ninth in the Kentucky Oaks and earned a well-deserved freshening following a string of six straight races from late October to early May. Cox gave Tarifa the rest of the spring and start of summer off, with a plan to come back in August to prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes in late September at Parx Racing.
Tarifa reaches that goal Saturday when she takes on seven others, including heavy favorite Thorpedo Anna, in the 1 1/16-mile co-feature on Pennsylvania Derby Day.
“We set this plan up and didn’t think Thorpedo Anna, at the time, would target this race, but look, it is what it is,” Cox said Thursday afternoon from Kentucky. “We have a lot of confidence she’s going to run her race. I don’t know if her best race wins the race, but it could be worth a placing and we’d be happy with that. Then maybe she can build off that as well.”
Tarifa won the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra and Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks this winter and spring in New Orleans to earn her spot in the Kentucky Oaks field. She wound up going off the 5-1 third choice in the Kentucky Oaks, just behind Thorpedo Anna at 4-1 and Just F Y I at 7-2, but finished 18 lengths back.
Cox cut Tarifa back to 7 furlongs for her comeback in the Audubon Oaks August 11 at Ellis Park and she finished second, beaten 2 1/4 lengths after leading in midstretch.
“I was happy with the race,” Cox said. “That was the plan the whole time. Once she got back and was ready to run, after her little freshening, the plan was to find a race to set her up for the Cotillion.
“I was very happy with the race at Ellis Park. She broke from the inside, finished up well. We saw enough out of her to obviously go back around two turns. We think she’s a two-turn horse. We’re hopeful she can move forward.”
Tarifa, the 5-1 third choice on the morning line behind 4-5 Thorpedo Anna and 4-1 second pick Power Squeeze, reunites with Flavien Prat after being ridden by Florent Geroux in the Audubon Oaks.
– Tom Law
Phone call brings Foster, Everland to Cotillion
Video: Eric Foster after Everland wins $300,000 Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway
The idea of running his 3-year-old filly Everland in the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion was in the back of trainer Eric Foster’s mind. It came more into view when he got a phone call from suburban Philadelphia.
“It really started coming on the radar when the racing secretary called me,” Foster said with a laugh.
That would be David Osojnak, Director of Racing and Racing Secretary at Parx. Foster took the call, and he is coming to Parx for the first time with Everland, a 20-1 longshot in the Cotillion.
“I am taking a shot,” the Kentucky-based Foster said by phone as he was driving to Pennsylvania.
Like everyone else running in the Cotillion, Foster knows there is a huge mountain to climb. That obstacle is Thorpedo Anna, the 4-5 morning-line favorite.
“It’s not like I am coming up there thinking I am going to blow Thorpedo Anna up,” Foster said. “Maybe she won’t have her best day. I’ll be happy to hit the board.”
Everland has the most experience of any of the eight runners in the Cotillion, which will be her 13th start.
The daughter of Arrogate owns three wins. The Cotillion will be her second start in Grade 1 company. She finished fifth, beaten 12 lengths by Thorpedo Anna in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks in May.
She had three off-the-board finishes after the Oaks – all on turf – before returning to the main track and being part of a three-horse photo in an allowance-optional claimer at Ellis Park August 25. Everland was placed second after a disqualification.
“You can see on the paper what she has done, how her form is,” Foster said. “She hasn’t done anything wrong, and she trains good.”
She will be ridden by Luan Machado and is owned by Foster Family Racing, William J. Wargel, R.K. Eckrich Racing and Maxis Stable. If she is going to make an impact in the Cotillion, it will be from off the pace.
“Maybe the pace will play in our favor,” Foster said. “It’s a million-dollar, Grade 1 and it looks pretty good if you get placed in a race like that on a mare or filly. We are going to try and win, but we would be tickled to hit the board.”
Foster also brought Alwaysintomischief to Parx to run in the Grade 2, $400,000 Gallant Bob at 6 furlongs.
The 3-year-old son of Maximus Mischief has three wins in seven career starts. Six of those starts have come this year. In his last start, he lost by a neck in the Honey Jay Stakes at Thistledown in early August. He will also be ridden by Machado and is owned by RMS Racing.
The HoneyJay was his first start since June, but Foster said it was not a planned layoff. He hoped to run Alwaysintomischief in a race at Ellis Park on turf, one that could have springboarded him to Kentucky Downs. The race was rained off the grass, Foster scratched and waited.
“This horse fits (in the Gallant Bob),” he said. “I am not making the trip for nothing. I think both my horses have a shot.”
– Tim Wilkin
D’Amato hopes for ‘strong’ first trip to Parx
California-based trainer Phil D’Amato, who has been an increasing presence in Kentucky, is hoping his first trip to Parx Racing will be a memorable one.
The 48-year-old was on the Parx backstretch Friday morning watching his 3-year-old colt Stronghold gallop over the main track.
Stronghold, owned by Eric and Sharon Waller, is being aimed at Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby, the marquee event of the 14-race card.
“He is a horse who is maturing at the right time,” D’Amato said. “He seems to handle this track very well. We definitely would not have thrown him on the plane if he wasn’t doing well.”
Stronghold is the 5-2 second choice on the Pennsylvania Derby morning line and will be ridden by regular pilot Antonio Fresu.
In his last start, Stronghold finished second in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby behind Dragoon Guard, the 9-5 morning-line favorite in the Pennsylvania Derby. Stronghold went off as the 6-5 favorite in the July 6 Indiana Derby.
The Indiana Derby was Stronghold’s first start since finishing seventh in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby. The layoff was by design.
“He never really had a true break since he was a 2-year-old,” D’Amato said. “The Derby is a grueling race, and it was hot and humid that day. We gave him extra time to regroup and strengthen up again.”
Stronghold has won two of four starts this year, the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby being the highlight. He also took the Grade 3 Sunland Park Derby.
D’Amato said the Pennsylvania Derby has been a target since the Kentucky Derby. His plan was to run at the Indiana Derby before Parx and then, hopefully, get to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in November.
“Antonio has been breezing him every week and he thought he is as good as he has ever been,” D’Amato said. “And here we are.”
– Tim Wilkin
Sidamara looks to make up for lost time in Cotillion
It’s been an impressive, but short, career for Sidamara. Juddmonte’s homebred 3-year-old Arrogate filly will be playing catch up when she runs for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing.
She was last seen July 8 finishing second by a nose to Cotillion rival Power Squeeze in the Grade 3 Delaware Oaks. Before that, Sidamara won a Keeneland maiden race and a Churchill Downs allowance race.
Mott pointed Sidamara to the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in August before those plans were sidetracked.
“She got a fever and got sick after the Delaware race,” Mott said from Saratoga. “We wanted to give our filly an opportunity to run in a good race.”
Power Squeeze would go on to win the Alabama.
Sidamara, who will be ridden by regular rider Jose Ortiz Saturday, has worked five times on Saratoga’s Oklahoma Training Track since the setback, including a half-mile breeze in :49.77 last Sunday.
The Cotillion will be the first Grade 1 for Sidamara, who does her best running in the later stages of her races.
“This is the next race that came up for her,” Mott said of Sidamara, who is 6-1 on the Cotillion morning line. “Our filly is doing well.”
– Tim Wilkin
Joseph takes big Derby swing with Who’s the King
When the entries for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby were taken on Monday, guess whose name showed up? Who’s the King, that’s who.
“It’s kind of a crazy entry, isn’t it?” Joseph said this week from Saratoga Race Course. “We got beat 25 lengths. What do we have to lose? It can’t be any worse than last time. That was atrocious.”
Who’s the King, owned by Ken Ramsey, will be ridden for the first time by Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith and is one of two in the 11-race field listed at 20-1 on the morning line along with Lonesome Boy.
Who’s the King has just a maiden win on his 10-race resume and the Pennsylvania Derby will be his try in a graded stakes. The Not This Time colt started his career last year in Kentucky and ran twice at Churchill Downs’ spring meet, including finishing second in a $127,000 allowance race at Saturday’s distance.
Joseph has fond memories of the Pennsylvania Derby as he pulled off a surprise in 2019 when Math Wizard won at odds of 31-1. That was the first Grade 1 win in Joseph’s career.
“That was an important race for us to win,” he said. “It took us to a level where people knew we could win big races. It definitely helped bring better horses to our barn. I am never going to forget that day at Parx.”
A win by Who’s the King Saturday would certainly bring another Parx memory to Joseph.
He is going in with some very cautious optimism because of a throat procedure after the last race.
And Who’s the King does have a bullet work – a half-mile in :48 seconds Monday on Saratoga’s Oklahoma Training Track – coming into the Pennsylvania Derby.
“If we didn’t think we had some kind of Hail Mary, we wouldn’t be doing it,” Joseph said. “We are going to go there and hope that the horse we know is capable of showing up, shows up.”
– Tim Wilkin
