PaDerby, Cotillion have decided KY flavor

Thursday’s Parx Racing media notes (Sammantha Pagels/Coady Media photo of Dragoon Guard winning Indiana Derby)

Cox bids for back-to-back wins with streaking Dragoon Guard 

Brad Cox came to Parx Racing last September for the betPARX Pennsylvania Derby full of confidence and Saudi Crown belied those beliefs with a front-running victory. Cox brings another serious player for this year’s $1 million renewal in morning-line favorite Dragoon Guard, who gives the Kentucky-based horseman a big chance to ride away from Bensalem with another Grade 1 victory and a big payday. 

“I’m hoping to, that’s the plan,” Cox said Thursday. “We’ll see.”

Dragoon Guard brings a four-race win streak into Saturday’s Pennsylvania Derby, including back-to-back scores in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby at Horseshoe Indianapolis in early July and the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby in early August at Mountaineer Park. He’s the 9-5 favorite on the morning line set by Parx’s Director of Racing and Racing Secretary David Osojnak.

“The gray horse is doing great,” Cox said. “He’s done everything we’ve asked of him this year. He’s taken a step forward every time and I think another step forward should put him in the winner’s circle. He’s a horse that looks like he can handle the distance. He proved that last time in West Virginia. He’s had plenty of time to recover from that, his works have been steady and he’s giving us a lot of confidence that he’s able to win a Grade 1.” 

A fifth straight win would yield a more than $500,000 first-place check, Grade 1 status for Juddmonte’s regally bred son of Arrogate and just the second back-to-back victories in the Pennsylvania Derby for a trainer and jockey team.

Cox and Florent Geroux, who have teamed to win scores of major stakes together, try to match Bob Baffert and Mike Smith as only trainer-jockey back-to-back winners of the Pennsylvania Derby. Baffert and Smith teamed to win the 2017 renewal with West Coast and 2018 edition with McKinzie.

Major victories for the Cox and Geroux team include three renewals of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff with Idiomatic (2023) and Monomoy Girl (2018 and 2020) and two editions of the Kentucky Oaks with Shedaresthedevil (2020) and Monomoy Girl (2018). 

Bred by Juddmonte, Dragoon Guard is out of Grade 2 winner Filimbi, a daughter of Mizzen Mast out of Kentucky Oaks and Alabama winner Flute. Dragoon Guard won going the Pennsylvania Derby 9-furlong trip last time out in the West Virginia Derby, where he won by 2 3/4 lengths as the 3-5 favorite. 

Cox briefly considered giving Dragoon Guard a Grade 1 try in the Travers Stakes in late August at Saratoga Race Course, after the colt’s 2 1/2-length win over fellow Pennsylvania Derby runner Stronghold in the Indiana Derby. Cox didn’t give into the temptation and opted instead for the West Virginia Derby with an eye on Parx. 

“Listen, I don’t know if he was ready to face those horses at that time,” Cox said of the Travers. “He could. He has the potential to be every bit as good as those horses. Obviously, he only had the one run as a 2-year-old. He didn’t get his season started until April, so he was a little behind those horses with regards to seasoning. We’ve brought him along the right way and now he has a big opportunity in a Grade 1.”

– Tom Law

Star filly Thorpedo Anna continues to raise the bar

In the early 2000s, trainer Kenny McPeek had a filly named Take Charge Lady in his barn. All she did in her 22-race career was win 11 times and become a multiple Grade 1 winner. 

In 2020, he had another filly – Swiss Skydiver – and she beat the boys in the 2020 Preakness.

“If you would have told me I would have a filly better than Take Charge Lady … the bar was set really high with her,” McPeek said this week by phone from Lexington, Kentucky. “And then Swiss Skydiver set it higher.”

You can see where this is going.

McPeek has the best 3-year-old filly in the land in Thorpedo Anna and she could very well be the showstopper at Parx Racing Saturday as she headlines the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion. She’s has won four of five starts this season, the lone defeat coming when she tried colts and finished second by a head to Fierceness in the Grade 1 Travers at Saratoga. 

In the other four starts – all of them graded stakes including three Grade 1s – against 3-year-old fillies, she has dominated. She has won them all by a combined 18 3/4 lengths. 

McPeek has hit the filly jackpot once more. He never thought he would have one better than Take Charge Lady. And then along came Swiss Skydiver. 

“This one,” McPeek said, “might have jumped over both of them. I am really proud of all of them. They all breathe rare air.”

Thorpedo Anna, owned by Brookdale Racing, Inc., Mark Edwards, Judy B. Hicks and Sherri McPeek’s Magdalena Racing, will be ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr. in the 1 1/16-mile Cotillion. 

McPeek said that Thorpedo Anna is scheduled to ship to Parx from Saratoga Friday morning.

Because of her exploits on the track, Thorpedo Anna has become a popular fixture at McPeek’s barn. The trainer welcomes and encourages the attention that comes to the filly.

“I am glad the fans are able to enjoy her, and we are going to keep trying to do that,” McPeek said. “It is what it’s all about. It’s what the sport needs to do more of. We need to share our stars and let people see them and touch them and feel them. As you know, I am pretty much an open book. When you are around a horse like this, everyone wants to see that horse.” 

– Tim Wilkin

Lukas hopes for that Preakness feeling with Seize the Grey

After Seize the Grey had his Thursday morning gallop at Parx Racing, Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas sat on stacked bags of stall shavings outside his horse’s stall and went down a not so long-ago memory lane.

On May 18 at Pimlico Race Course, Lukas saddled Seize the Grey, a 9-1 shot in the Preakness Stakes. Before the gates opened, Lukas tuned to his wife, Laurie, and did his best impression of Nostradamus.

“I told her this was the best bet in the 20th century,” Lukas said. “I was very confident … just the way he was coming into the race. Felt really good about him.”

Lukas is hoping to have that same kind of moment when Seize the Grey goes postward in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby. Seize the Grey, owned by MyRacehorse, is the 5-1 third choice on the morning line set by Parx’s Director of Racing and Racing Secretary David Osojnak.

Seize the Grey hasn’t been seen since finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga July 27. In that race, Lukas said his colt was not himself in the paddock before the race was run.

“That horse stood like a stone statue,” he said. “We walked him a little bit, brought him back in (the paddock stall) and he pawed. He tried to get down on his knees, which is a sure sign of colic. They want to roll.”

Lukas said he was close to scratching Seize the Grey that day but carried on. Seize the Grey was fine after the race and Lukas said he has been good since.

Seize the Grey has three wins in seven starts this year. The son of Arrogate won the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile before taking the Preakness, both times under Jaime Torres. 

Because Seize the Grey won the Preakness, Lukas and MyRacehorse are both entitled to a $50,000 bonus from Parx just for starting in the race. Lukas said Seize the Grey is as good as he can get him coming into the Pennsylvania Derby.

“I don’t have any excuses, and I am not making any up,” he said. “If he gets beat, he gets beat. He has already caught the brass ring (Preakness) as you might say. We will see what happens.” 

– Tim Wilkin