Chub Wagon Maintains Her Winning Ways In Plum Pretty At Parx

Daniel Lopez and George Chestnut's Club Wagon answered the two-turn test successfully as she held off a late run from Vault to take the $200,000 Plum Pretty Stakes for Pennsylvania-bred filly and mares at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Penn.

Starting from the sixth post position, Chub Wagon stalked pacesetter Precious from the outside through fractions of :24 3/5, :48 4/5, and 1:12 3/5 before taking the lead halfway around the far turn to come away with a half-length victory under regular jockey Jomar Torres.

“We told the kid [Jomar Torres] when you come at the top of the stretch, try as best as you can because the top horses are going to be closing,” trainer Guadalupe Preciado said “I was not worried about the horse going long. She ran very hard.”

Chub Wagon, who paid $4.20 to win as the favorite, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 4/5. The 4-year-old filly also survived a trainer inquiry as she drifted out as she and Vault approached the finish line.

“Good trip first time for her first time long,” Torres said “She was relaxed and nice. She got a little tired I love that horse. I think she got out a little, but not too much. I didn't think she would come down.”

Chub Wagon, whose lone defeat came in the Dr. Teresa Garofalo Memorial Stakes with a second-place finish, has now won 10-11 races.

 

QUOTES

Guadalupe Preciado, winning trainer of Chub Wagon (No. 6, $4.20): “We told the kid when you come at the top of the stretch, try as best as you can because the top horses are going to be closing. I was not worried about the horse going long. She ran very hard. We run her so close. I believe in Lasix. We were supposed to run in New York at 6 ½ furlongs (Gallant Bloom on Sunday)} but there is no Lasix.”

“She is very, very nice. We run too close too many times, it was maybe two weeks and she ran a huge race.”

About the Distance: “It's hard to figure out. When she ran seven eighths against these horses, she kept on going. I thought this horse can go. It was two choices, we run over here long or run in NY with no Lasix and we stayed here.”

WORRIED ABOUT INQUIRY: No. the other kid never stopped riding.

Jomar Torres, winning jockey aboard Chub Wagon (No. 6): “Good trip for her first time and her first time long. She was relaxed and nice. She got a little tired. I love that horse. I think she got out a little, but not too much. I didn't think she would come down.”

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Chub Wagon Best In Shine Again At Pimlico

Daniel Lopez and George Chestnut's undefeated Chub Wagon passed her biggest test to date with flying colors, reeling in multiple stakes-winning pacesetter Hello Beautiful through the stretch and surging late for a thrilling half-length victory in Sunday's $100,000 Shine Again Stakes at historic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md.

The 13th running of the six-furlong Shine Again for fillies and mares 3 and up, part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series, was the fourth of five stakes worth $475,000 in purses on a 10-race program.

Followed by the $100,000 Stormy Blues to cap the card, the Shine Again was preceded by the $100,000 Searching Stakes and $100,000 Prince George's County Stakes on turf and $75,000 Ben's Cat Stakes. The Stormy Blues for 3-year-old fillies and Ben's Cat for Maryland-bred/sired 3-year-olds and up were both moved from the grass to the main track and remained at five furlongs.

Sent off the 1-2 favorite in a field of eight that included Anna's Bandit, Dontletsweetfoolya, Hello Beautiful and Never Enough Time – winners of 34 career races, 20 of them in stakes – Chub Wagon improved to 7-0 lifetime with her third consecutive stakes win and second in a row at Pimlico following the May 15 Skipat Stakes on the undercard of the 146th Grade 1 Preakness Stakes.

The winning time was 1:10.21 over a fast main track.

“She's a very, very, very classy horse. She does everything easy,” winning trainer Guadalupe Preciado said. “When she came back, she looked like she wasn't even blowing. She's does everything so good.”

Breaking from the rail under Jomar Torres, now aboard for five of her wins including her first stakes triumph in the April 27 Unique Bella Stakes at Parx, Chub Wagon was outrun for the lead by Hello Beautiful, making her first start since finishing off the board in the Grade 3 Runhappy Barbara Fritchie Stakes Feb. 20 at Laurel Park.

The opening quarter-mile went in :22.21 with Chub Wagon rated in second, flanked to her outside by Dontletsweetfoolya as Hello Beautiful led the way. She was still in front midway around the turn after going a half in :45.32, with Chub Wagon looming after putting away Dontletsweetfoolya. Once straightened for home, the top two began to separate from the pack.

“I told [Torres] it looked like [Hello Beautiful] was the speed. I said, 'I'd like to be outside of her. We had a bad position on the inside but if she wants to go, let her go, and go from there.' Last time she closed nice, and today she closed again. The filly she beat is a nice filly.”

Irad Ortiz Jr. was up in the Skipat, the first time Chub Wagon didn't lead from start to finish in any of her races. She won the six-furlong Skipat by two lengths, which had been her shortest margin of victory until Sunday.

“She ran great today. I sat off the pace today because she was going great, but the other horse had more speed. So I waited, and, when I went to the clear, she picked it up very well. She loves to fight,” Torres said. “She's a really nice filly.”

Hello Beautiful stubbornly dug in under Sheldon Russell into deep stretch, but grudgingly gave way approaching the wire. It was another three lengths back to 59-1 long shot Paisley Singing in third, followed by Never Enough Time, Anna's Bandit, Lucre, Unique Factor, and Dontletsweetfoolya.

A 7-year-old mare with 17 wins, 11 stakes, and more than $782,000 in purse earnings from 36 previous starts, Anna's Bandit was also coming off a layoff, not having run since last summer at Delaware Park.

“She ran huge. It's disappointing to get beat, but it's nice to see her come back and run her eyeballs out,” Hello Beautiful's trainer Brittany Russell said. “You kind of had to take it to [Chub Wagon] a little bit. You don't want to let her get away and then we're sitting there saying, 'Why didn't we go?' I was happy with how it ended up; I just wish we were on the other end of the result. She's not one to fold. She's had a couple excuses along the way. It's nice to see she ran hard.”

A 4-year-old Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Hey Chub that gave Parx Hall of Famer Precaido his 2,000th career win with her debut victory last fall, Chub Wagon is being considered for the $350,000 Grade 2 Princess Rooney Stakes July 3 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla. The seven-furlong Princess Rooney is a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the $1 million Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint Nov. 6 at Del Mar Race Track in Del Mar, Calif.

“If everything goes good, I think we're going to the Princess Rooney,” Preciado said. “Every time she runs, the races come harder and harder. For me, that's the way to do it. I don't want to come out of nowhere and face tough horses and later you have nothing. You go slowly and sometimes the horses like it. Next time probably is going to be tougher.”

The Shine Again Stakes returned to the Maryland stakes calendar after being a casualty of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and was being contested at Pimlico for the first time since 2013, having each of its last four runnings at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

It honors Allaire duPont's fourth-generation Maryland homebred mare that retired in 2003 after winning 14 of 34 starts, seven stakes, and nearly $1.3 million in purses. Trained by late Hall of Famer Allen Jerkens, she won back-to-back editions of the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes in 2001 and 2002 and was second in 2003.

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Undefeated Chub Wagon Regroups For Sunday’s Shine Again Stakes

Even in a career that counts more than 2,000 winners and a dozen graded-stakes, trainer Guadalupe Preciado can count the truly special ones he's had on one hand.

Two fingers, even.

The first belongs to millionaire Favorite Tale, who captured the 2014 Gallant Bob (G3) and 2015 Smile Sprint (G2), and later that year ran third in the A.G. Vanderbilt Handicap (G1) and Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1). Favorite Tale was no stranger to Maryland, winning the Dave's Friend at Laurel Park in 2018 in his penultimate career start.

Preciado points a second finger to his current stable star, Daniel Lopez and George Chestnut's 4-year-old homebred filly Chub Wagon, undefeated through six career starts. The bay daughter of Hey Chub will be aiming for her third consecutive stakes triumph in Sunday's $100,000 Shine Again at historic Pimlico Race Course.

The six-furlong Shine Again for fillies and mares 3 and up is among five stakes worth $450,000 and the only one on dirt. It is also the next installment in the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series.

Other stakes on the June 13 program are all on the turf, led by the $100,000 Prince George's County for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/8 miles and $100,000 Searching at 1 ½ miles for females 3 and older. A pair of five-furlong sprints are also on tap – the $100,000 Stormy Blues for sophomore fillies and $75,000 Ben's Cat for Maryland-bred/sired horses 3 and up.

Based at Parx, where he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2013, Preciado is a native of Mexico who began training in 1989. He topped $1 million in season earnings for 24 consecutive years, from 1997 to 2017, exceeding $2 million four times. His brother, Ramon, also trains.

“The last nice horse I trained before her is Favorite Tale. He was a [Pennsylvania]-bred, too,” Preciado said. “She's a nice one. It's not easy to find those kinds of horses. It's easy for guys like the Todd Pletchers and the Chad Browns and all the guys that have so many 2-year-olds every year. It's no problem to find them. We have local horses over here. It's hard.”

Preciado was working for trainer Ron Benshoff when the two attended a party where Benshoff introduced him to Jack Mondel of Hidden Lane Farms. A friendship developed that soon had Mondel sending Preciado the kind of horses to give his fledgling career a boost, including Debutante's Halo, winner of the 1990 Demoiselle (G2), and Mr. Nasty, who won the 1990 Gravesend (G3) and 1991 Tom Fool (G2).

Other graded-stakes winners Preciado trained are Caught in the Rain, Iron Punch, Score a Birdie, Joker, Michael's Star and Sham Francisco. Favorite Tale's Smile Sprint at Gulfstream Park was his most recent.

Among his previous Maryland stakes wins are Michael's Star in the 1996 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial, Mary's Silver Pen in the 2000 Marshua and Rockin Jojo in the 2016 Geisha and Maryland Million Distaff.

Preciado initially entered Chub Wagon in the seven-furlong Bed o' Roses (G3) June 4 at Belmont Park, where she was installed as the morning-line favorite, but opted to skip the race. She comes back to a distance where she has already won three times including her unveiling, which didn't come until mid-November of her 3-year-old season at Parx and provided Preciado with his milestone 2,000th victory.

“When I got her, the owner told me that she's a nice filly,” Preciado said. “Sometimes you have a little problem and when you have a horse that can run, you do the best you can to take care of the little problem before you got a big problem. Especially with the 2-year-olds. If you don't wait, they make you wait.”

Chub Wagon reeled off three straight allowance wins before romping in the seven-furlong Unique Bella against state-breds April 27 at Parx. In her first open-company stakes, she captured the Skipat at Pimlico May 15 on the undercard of the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1).

The competition in the Shine Again is expected to include heavyweights such as Hello Beautiful, a five-time stakes winner that hasn't raced since the Runhappy Barbara Fritchie (G3) Feb. 20 at Laurel, and Dontletsweetfoolya, who strung together five straight wins, two in stakes, before losses in the Fritchie and Skipat, where she ran fourth in her comeback. Hibiscus Punch, the 41-1 upset Fritchie winner, is also nominated.

Affable and easy-going, Preciado is less worried about maintaining the streak as he is seeing Chub Wagon run well and enjoying the ride.

“At my age, I don't care too much anymore because I know whatever will happen, will happen. For me it's exciting.”

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Trainer Guadalupe Preciado Celebrates 2,000th Win At Parx

When Chub Wagon, a 3-year-old filly making her career debut, came romping home to thoroughly convincing 7 1/2 length win in the fourth race Monday afternoon at Parx, trainer Guadalupe Preciado celebrated the 2,000th win on his career.

A native of Mexico, Preciado came to the U.S. and began training horses in 1989. A chance meeting with owner Jack Mondel (Hidden Lane Farms) jump-started his career in the early '90's, led by multiple graded stakes winner Mr. Nasty (G3 Gravesend Handicap
– 1990 and G2 Tom Fool – 1991). He also won the G2 Demoiselle for Mondel in 1990 with Debutante's Halo.

Inducted into the Parx Hall of Fame in 2013, Preciado also trained multiple graded stakes winners Favorite Tale (G3 Gallant Bob – 2014 and G2 Smile Sprint – 2015) and Caught in the Rain (G2 Mrs. Revere – 2002 and G3 Athenia – 2003). Favorite Tale was honored as Pennsylvania Horse of the Year in 2014.

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