pennsylvania nursery | Horse Racing Free Tips

Witty, a half-brother to graded stakes winner Caravel, handily defeated nine rivals in the $200,000 Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes at Parx Racing in a five and a half length triumph.

A homebred for Elizabeth Merryman, the 2-year-old Pennsylvania-bred son of Great Notion earned his second career victory and gave McLane Hendriks his first career winner as a trainer in the Pennsylvania Nursery.

After being forced to steady early, Witty moved up into contention on the backstretch under Carol Cedeno, settled in to save ground as the leader, Wispering Springs approached the quarter pole. Once in the clear, Witty responded when asked and drew away in the stretch.

“Very exciting…it's obviously a little bit stressful to train for your parents, but it makes it that much sweeter when you win,” said trainer McLane Hendriks. “I always kind of thought he was a turf horse, but he's been training so well on the dirt and handles it so well. We wanted to stretch him out a little bit here today and I do think he can get some more ground. It's exciting to have a horse like this and have a future wide open.”

Witty went off as the 2-1 favorite and returned $6.60 to win. Uncle Buddy ran second and Vine Jet completed the trifecta. The final time for the seven furlongs on a fast track was 1:26.44.

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Fire's Finale came from last with a half mile to go, swept past eleven rivals and went on to win Monday's $80,000 Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes for state-bred 2-year-olds at Parx Racing by a length. It was the second win in seven starts this year for the Jump Start colt, his first stakes victory, and pushed his freshman earnings to just over $101,000.

After a busy schedule, making six starts though mid-October, trainer Kelly Breen opted to rest Fire's Finale for nearly two months before returning to the races for the Nursery. Breaking his maiden in that sixth start here at Parx, winning in a special weight over a sloppy track, maybe he had started to figure things out. Returning to the work tab at Belmont in November, he posted a bullet work at five-eighths on Nov. 17 and then impressed with another bullet work at half-mile on Nov. 25, the 2-year-old working the best of 92 that day.

The colt's late season development continued into the Nursery.

Taken back in the early part of the race by winning jockey Mychal Sanchez, Fire's Finale began to make headway as the race entered the far turn. Able to make a run on the inside of horses in the bulky field, he followed the move of Kidnapped as they rounded the far turn. While Kidnapped got first run on the two tiring front runners, Just a Thought and Beren, Fire's Finale was still moving well and coming off the turn was able to angle out for a clear path and started to kick into high gear in the final furlong. Kidnapped held the lead briefly in the stretch, but Fire's Finale surged past with about 70 yards to go and moved away at the end to win by a full length.

The final time for the seven furlongs on a fast track was 1:25.35.

Owned by Kenwood Racing and Degaetano and Pastore, Inc., Fire's Finale went off at odds of 11-1 and returned $25.80 to win.

Kidnapped, the 5-2 second choice, was next to last early, ran a terrific race with another big run from the back but simply could not hold off the winner and settled for second. Just a Thought (18-1) in a pace duel with Beren, held on for third.

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