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COVID-19 ‘Just Wiped Out Everything’: Parx Cancels Pennsylvania Derby, Cotillion

Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa. will not host the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby or Grade 1 Cotillion in 2020, according to the Thoroughbred Daily News. Both $1 million races, originally scheduled for Sept. 26, are victims of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“We will not be running any open stakes races this year,” racing secretary David Osojnak told the TDN. “We will be going on hiatus. The virus, the plague, just wiped out everything. We think we will be able to come back stronger in 2021.”

The late September date is an issue this year because Churchill Downs postponed the Kentucky Derby to Sept. 5 and the Preakness was rescheduled for Oct. 3. That left Parx little chance of attracting top 3-year-olds for its premier stakes races.

Instead, Osojnak reallocated the purse money from the Pennsylvania Derby and Cotillion to overnight purses, allowing him to keep them near levels from 2019 until casino revenue starts flowing again.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Tiz the Law Draws Post Six in Travers

GI Belmont S. winner Tiz the Law (Constitution) looks to take his next step down this unconventional GI Kentucky Derby trail in Saturday’s GI Runhappy Travers S. at Saratoga. The even-money morning-line favorite will break from post six with regular rider Manny Franco in the irons.

“I think he’s matured enough now that outside or inside is not going to bother him too much,” trainer Barclay Tagg said. “I’d prefer that he’s on the outside just because you have less chance of getting in trouble. Not that you can’t, but you have less chance. I think post six is fine. Five would have been fine. Four would have been fine. Any of those three would have been fine with me.”

‘TDN Rising Star’ Uncle Chuck (Uncle Mo) is the second choice at 5-2 and is drawn in post three. The undefeated Bob Baffert pupil will be piloted by Luis Saez. Belmont third-place finisher and GIII Withers S. victor Max Player (Honor Code) and GIII Peter Pan S. winner Country Grammar (Tonalist) were both given 6-1 morning-line quotes. Trainer by Linda Rice, Max Player drew post four with Joel Rosario in the irons. Chad Brown pupil Country Grammar will be in stall two with Irad Ortiz at the controls.

The rest of the field is as follows: First Line (First Samurai), post one, 30-1; Shivaree (Awesome of Course), post five, 30-1; Caracaro (Uncle Mo), post seven, 10-1; and South Bend (Algorithms), post eight, 15-1.

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Military March To Follow Benbatl Route

Last year’s G3 Autumn S. winner Military March (GB) (New Approach {Ire}), a leading fancy for the G1 Investec Derby before meeting with a setback in the lead-up to the race, will follow a similar path over the winter to his Saeed bin Suroor stablemate Benbatl (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), the trainer said. Military March, last seen finishing fourth in the G1 2000 Guineas on June 6, is training towards an autumn return in Europe and will later target dirt races in Dubai.

“Military March is back in light training,” bin Suroor said. “We are not going to rush him and he will be out at the end of September or early October, where we will find a race for him. The horse is doing well physically. We will look to give him one more run in England, then take him to Dubai–but he needs to have one more run here to make sure he is fit when he goes out there as he is a big horse. We will target one of the Al Maktoum Challenge races to start with to see if he handles the dirt. Everyone is always searching for a horse for the Dubai World Cup and if he did well on the dirt he could be a horse for the race. We will have to see how he handles the dirt, but if he doesn’t we would switch him back to the turf. It is too early to say what the future plans will be, but if the dirt didn’t work out we could look at the Dubai Turf or Sheema Classic.”

As for Benbatl, who won the G2 Singspiel S. and G2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 over the winter at Meydan and was last seen finishing third in the Saudi Cup, he is expected to resurface next in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois on Aug. 16 or the G1 Juddmonte International on Aug. 19.

“We will have a look at which race to go for closer to the time, as it doesn’t matter if he goes a mile or mile and a quarter,” bin Suroor said. “He always runs well fresh, like we saw when he won the Group 2 at Newmarket. We were getting him ready for the Dubai World Cup and he was flying, but he didn’t get the chance to run [with the meeting cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic] so we decided to give him a break as he had already had three runs.”

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Pennsylvania Derby, Cotillion Will Not Be Held in 2020

Due to circumstances that arose with the coronavirus pandemic, Parx Racing has canceled all of its open stakes for the remainder of the year, including the GI Pennsylvania Derby and the GI Cotillion S. The two $1-million events were part of a program that had been scheduled for Sept. 26 and also included the Turf Amazon S., the Parx Dirt Mile and the GII Gallant Bob S.

“We will not be running any open stakes races this year,” racing secretary David Osojnak said. “We will be going on hiatus. The virus, the plague, just wiped out everything. We think we will be able to come back stronger in 2021.”

COVID-19 caused two major problems for the Parx stakes. Since being moved to mid-September they had an open spot on the calendar, coming after the major 3-year-old races at Saratoga and before the Breeders’ Cup. That allowed Parx to attract quality fields that included recent Pennsylvania Derby winners like McKinzie (Street Sense) and West Coast (Flatter). Once the GI Kentucky Derby was rescheduled for Sept. 5 and the GI Preakness S. for Oct. 3, the mid-September slot no longer worked.

The purse account at Parx was also dealt a blow with the closing of the on-track casino Mar. 16. It reopened June 29, but can only operate at 50% capacity.

“It was 50-50,” Osojnak said. “As soon as they moved the Derby, we had a problem. We would have had to run three weeks after the Derby and a week before the Preakness. The way things were working out, it just didn’t make any sense to do so, from a financial standpoint or from where the calendar fell.”

Using the money that would have been earmarked for the Sept. 26 stakes has allowed Osojnak to keep purses for overnight races near their 2019 levels.

“We cut our purses, but not significantly,” he said. “I did an analysis of the local tracks–Laurel, Delaware, Monmouth. We had to work things out between the horsemen and Parx management, but what we wanted to do was to make sure that our purses were comparable, plus or minus a few thousand dollars, with those other tracks. We are doing OK, and if the casino revenue picks up, I anticipate that the purses will go back up.”

Parx will hold a handful of Pennsylvania-bred stakes races this year, including five scheduled to be run Sept. 7.

“It’s disappointing that we won’t be able to run these stakes this year,” Osojnak said. “This virus has affected so many things. These races will be back and, we believe, stronger than ever.”

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