The Critical Way held off a late rally from Battle Station, to prevail by a nose as the short-priced favorite in Tuesday's Grade 3, $200,000 Parx Dash at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa. Ridden by Paco Lopez, the 7-year-old gelding by Tizway, recorded his 10th lifetime victory from 27 starts.
Trained by Jose Delgado and owned by Randal Gindi's Monster Racing Stables, the Pennsylvania-bred ran the five furlongs in :58.55 on firm turf. Battle Station was a hard charging second, with Francatelli a head back in third in the field of seven.
The Parx Dash serves as the prep for the $300,000 Turf Monster (G3), to be run on Saturday, Sept. 25, at Parx Racing. Today's race was rescheduled from last Tuesday, after steady rain forced turf races to be run on the main track.
The Critical Way broke smoothly, then sat in third while Francatelli showed the way through an opening quarter mile in :23.03. Amblin Man, a 99-1 longshot, chased in second and grabbed the lead at the top of the stretch after a half mile in :46.44.
The Critical Way rallied wide into the stretch and wore down Amblin Man in the final sixteenth, then barely held off a late charge from Battle Station and jockey Angel Cruz. Francatelli fought back late to overtake Amblin Man for the third spot.
The Critical Way, sent off at 3-10, paid $2.60 for the win. He was claimed for $30,000 at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 15, 2020, by Monster Racing Stable and its former trainer Jorge Navarro, who recently pleaded guilty in a federal criminal case involving adulterated, misbranded drugs and faces up to five years in jail.
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