Javier Castellano masterfully guided Connect to victory Saturday in the $1,250,000 G2 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racecourse. Connect will collect the big check but the Chad Brown trainee was most likely the 2nd best horse in the race. Gun Runner ran far and wide only to come up ½ length short. (There are some sour grapes involved since I touted Gun Runner as the best in the field.)
Castellano rode Connect brilliantly as he broke in perfect stalking position, guarded his inside advantage while settling mid-pack, anticipated an inside opening and waited for the snappy 23.0 and 47.1 fractions to catch up to the leaders. Both horse and jockey did everything they needed to do to get the win. Connect paid $23.20, $9.80 and $7.20. Gun Runner returned $5.40 and $4.00, and 3rd place Wild About Deb, who went off at 60-1, gave backers $21.20 to show. The $2 Connect – Gun Runner Exacta returned $122.40.
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Contrary to Castellano’s masterful ride, Florent Geroux opted to take the overland route with Gun Runner and willingly went 6-wide on the 2nd half of the turn before flattening out as they approached the wire. Choosing to go outside of the fading Cupid, he ended up about 4 paths farther out than the winner. Parx racing doesn’t use the TRAKUS software which reveals the exact distance covered by each horse so I will revert to my old math that says 4 paths wider for ½ of the turn is about 16 extra feet travelled. That’s quite a lot of ground.
Geroux also had 2 other opportunities cross over to the rail and save ground after the 1st turn but chose otherwise. Either move would probably have led to a victory.
The race set up as expected with the front running Awesome Slew and Cupid on the engine with Nyquist lurking just behind. Awesome Slew broke from the #1 post, immediately drifted outward, ran straight to the lead, couldn’t cut the corner to the first turn and never came near the rail. This foretold that if he was still in front approaching the 2nd turn he would most likely drift out again and leave plenty of room to run down inside. This all happened directly in front of the eventual top two finishers. Javier Castellano must have seen this, Florent Geroux must have missed it.
Beyond the top two, Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and Preakness champ Exaggerator continued to disappoint. Nyquist had been freshening and doing aqua-therapy following a growth spurt. In spite of being in a perfect stalking spot, his return to the track resulted in an underwhelming 6th place finish. Exaggerator once again succumbed to his dry-track kryptonite and finished 7th.
This race further muddies the waters of the end of the year awards for best 3yr old. Every big race is being won by a new name. Without a standout amongst the colts, maybe we should just give all of the accolades to Cotillion winning filly Songbird and call it a year. I’d like to see her take one shot against the boys at this year’s Breeder’s Cup before she starts her rivalry with champion mare Beholder next year.
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We’ll be back again to beat the favorite next week.
