Repo Rocks and Andrew Wolfsont capture the $75K Let’s Give Thanks (Nikki Sherman/EQUI-PHOTO)
Repo Rocks Bounces Back in $75K Let’s Give Thanks
Bourbon Bon Bay Maintains Perfect Record in $75K Cornucopia
Ridin With Biden Back to Business in $75K Turkey Trot
By Amber Joyce
BENSALEM, Pa.— Parx’s 10-race card Wednesday afternoon was highlighted by three festive stakes events, which attracted a slew of returning Parx stakes winners, some of which found further black-type success over the Bensalem oval.
The action began in the seventh race with the $75,000 Let’s Give Thanks, 11 older horses knocking heads going a distance of six-and-a-half furlongs over the fast main track. The winning sum went to Double B Racing Stables’ Virginia-bred gelding Repo Rocks, who secured his first stakes win.
Exiting the gate from post position three, Repo Rocks broke the slowest but soon picked up his stride, angling outside of rivals to grab fourth position as the compact field traveled up the backstretch. Beren, the heavily favored recent winner of the $100,000 Jump Start, set the pace along the rail having also overcome a sluggish start and ran the opening quarter in a moderate 22.66. While the aforementioned colt led the way around the turn with pressure to his outside from stakes-winning Twisted Ride, Repo Rocks began to make his move under Andrew Wolfsont.
Through a half in 45.96, Beren still showing the way entering the stretch, Repo Rocks loomed three-wide in third, just a head off the lead. Twisted Ride stuck his nose in front approaching the eighth pole and Beren fought back, those two locked in battle with Repo Rocks making steady progress to their outside. A sixteenth from home and it looked like Twisted Ride might pull off the upset, having secured a half-length advantage over his opponents, but Repo Rocks ultimately proved the best, swooping by in the nick of time to prevail by a neck.
Six furlongs was clocked in 1:12.08. The final time for the six-and-a-half furlong distance was 1:18.85.
Behind Repo Rocks ($21.00, $10.20, $6.20), Twisted Ride ($12.40, $5.20) settled for second, with Beren ($2.60) holding off a strong rally from Yodel E. A. Who to secure show. Following them were Dollarization, Fast Bob, Dontmesawithme, Breezy Gust, Dance Code, No Cents, and Admiral Abe.
Repo Rocks, conditioned by prolific Mid-Atlantic-based trainer Jamie Ness, ended a losing streak that followed him since late April, when he won an allowance optional claiming at Belmont Park April 28. Most recently, he was a disappointing ninth in the G3 Bold Ruler, which followed a quartet of other stakes efforts, highlighted by a third-place finish in the G2 John A. Nerud behind the stellar, now-retired Life Is Good.
In total, Repo Rocks has raced 30 times including his 2020 debut, has won five of those races, and has been second and third six times each. Five of those runner-up finishes were in stakes races, three of them against graded company this year. Overall, the four-year-old has earned $444,571.
By Tapiture, out of the unraced Not For Love mare Hawaiian Love, Repo Rocks has been through the sales ring twice; as a weanling in 2018, Paradise Racing purchased him for a meager $35,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The next year, in the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, LRE Racing / JEH Racing / RAP bought him, the gavel coming down at $70,000.
Right after the Let’s Give Thanks, 11 fillies and mares three years old and upward headed postward in the $75,000 Cornucopia, a six and a half furlong affair over the main track. Favoritism went to Remain Anonymous, winner of Parx’s Dr. Teresa Garofalo Memorial this August, but it was Erin Hlubik’s streaky homebred Bourbon Bon Bay who made the trip to the winner’s circle.
Under Jomar Torres, Bourbon Bon Bay broke sharpest of them all from post position 10 but opted to sit off of the pace, which was set by Freccia d’Argento, a recent dominant winner of a starter allowance at Parx. Bourbon Bon Bay settled in third alongside stakes-winning Oxana as the field traveled up the backstretch, but ended up shuffled back to fourth when Shero knifed through horses.
Rounding the turn after an opening quarter run in 22.76, Bourbon Bon Bay recovered her stride, angled out four-wide, and found herself right alongside new leader Shero as the cavalry charged into the stretch. The two mares raced head to head, the former lugging in and making slight contact with her rival passing the eight pole. A sixteenth from home, Shero now fading fast, Bourbon Bon Bay dug in gamely to hold off a rallying Oxana, edging away to win by a length.
Following fractions of 46.69 for the half and three quarters in 1:13.67, the final time was 1:20.52.
Following Bourbon Bon Bay ($15.80, $7.60, $7.00), Oxana ($5.20, $4.00) was second; Moma Tiger ($12.40) at big odds of 34-1 rallied for third. Rounding out the order of finish were Sweet Willimena, Trolley Ride, Freccia d’Argento, Shero, Stand Up Comic, Jackie the Joker, Golden Tabby, and Remain Anonymous. J D’s Vista was scratched.
Trained by Ramon Martin, Bourbon Bon Bay remained undefeated in four starts (all at Parx) when capturing the Cornucopia. Patiently handled, connections didn’t start her until very late in her four-year-old season, where she drew off handily to score by nine lengths in a maiden special weight. She returned to the races in late June of this year, facing allowance optional claiming foes and holding on to win by a neck off of a 220-day layoff. Another allowance optional claiming followed in September; Bourbon Bon Bay shook loose to win by a length.
The Maryland-bred daughter of Bourbon Courage is out of the Majestic Warrior mare Sheza Dish, a three-time winner at Parx.
The last of the stakes trio was the $75,000 Turkey Trot Handicap in race nine, a mile and seventy yards affair for three-year-olds and upward over the main track. It was Cash is King LLC and LC Racing LLC’s G3 Greenwood Cup victor Ridin With Biden who proved victorious.
Breaking from post position five in the nine-horse field, Ridin With Biden prompted the pace three-wide, finding himself in the center of a line of five horses entering the first turn. After splits of 24.23 for the quarter and 49.21 for the half, set by a pressured Golden Juan, Ridin With Biden surged forward from where he had settled in third for most of the race. With the leader dropping back, he and 53-1 shot Tough Tickets hooked up entering the turn, the duo pulling away to a five-length advantage over the rest of the field heading into the stretch, three-quarters run in 1:14.86.
Shortly after dashing by the three-sixteenths pole, Tough Tickets began to falter and Ridin With Biden took the lead, maintaining a one-and-a-quarter length lead as he crossed the wire under Paco Lopez. One mile went in 1:42.29. The final time was 1:46.92.
A distance behind Ridin With Biden ($5.40, $3.60, $3.00) and Tough Tickets ($27.00, $13.00) was Lookin At Roses ($3.60). Following the top three were New Commission, Amatteroftime, Empty Tomb, Wait for It, Golden Juan, and Noneedtoworry. Expensive Cut, Northern Express, and Sound Off were scratched.
Ridin With Biden’s winning effort made up for a fifth-place finish in the M.P. Ballezzi Appreciation Mile Oct. 18 at Parx. The month prior, he took the G3 Greenwood Cup in gate-to-wire fashion, earning his very first graded stakes win. That race followed a fourth in the G3 Philip H. Iselin at Monmouth Park and a winning performance in Laurel Park’s Deputed Testamony. The Deputed Testamony was Ridin With Biden’s first stakes score.
Butch Reid handling the training duties since day one, Ridin With Biden has amassed earnings of $431,200 in his career. He has won six of his 19 career starts, has been second in five, and third in one. Counting the Turkey Trot, four of those six wins were at Parx.
Ridin With Biden was most recently an $85,000 purchase by his owners at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale. By Constitution, the four-year-old is out of the unraced Medaglia d’Oro mare Allemande.
