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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Go East Young Man: Heriberto Figueroa Moving Tack To Monmouth Park

While there's been a lot of talk about jockeys who say they won't be riding at New Jersey's Monmouth Park this summer because of the strict riding crop rules put in place by the state's racing commission, agent John Salamone is eager to report that he will be representing 21-year-old Heriberto Figueroa, who is moving his tack from Southern California to the Jersey Shore for the meet that begins May 28.

“It's a great opportunity to take a kid who has a bright future,” said Salamone, who will also represent Jomar Torres for the third consecutive year at Monmouth while handling Chantal Sutherland's book at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. “He can sit on a horse and ride,” Salamone added, “and he doesn't use the whip that much.”

New Jersey's rule, the strictest in North America, prohibits use of the whip for anything other than safety purposes.

Salamone said he was contacted by jockey Jose Ortiz, who got to know Figueroa at Puerto Rico's Escuela Vocacional Hipica riding school, where Jose and brother Irad Ortiz Jr. graduated, along with many other top riders.

“He called me and said he wanted to move East,” Ortiz said of Figueroa. “I know the kids from the jockey school, and I think he can ride a little bit. Heriberto has a great work ethic. He's a very nice, humble person and I know he's going to work as hard as he can. Monmouth is a great meet for him to ride.”

Figueroa launched his career in his native Puerto Rico, then rode during the Gulfstream Park Championship Meet in 2018 before heading to California, where he made an immediate impact, teaming up frequently with leading trainer Peter Miller. He finished his first full year as an apprentice with 103 wins from 582 mounts and finished in the top three in 47% of his races.

Figueroa won stakes for Miller and trainer Richard Baltas, who sent the jockey to Ohio last year to win the $200,000 Steel Valley Sprint Stakes aboard Vertical Threat.

“He's a great kid who always works hard and has a good attitude,” Miller said of Figueroa. “We won quite a few races together and I think he has a lot of talent.”

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