PARX: Pennsylvania Derby & Cotillion News

By Tom Law —-

$1,000,000 GI Pennsylvania Derby second choice Cyberknife with Katie Tolbert aboard gallops on September 21, 2022 at Parx Racing in Bensalem, PA. Photo by Nikki Sherman/EQUI-PHOTO.

Pa. Derby favorite Taiba reminds Baffert of Silver Charm

White Abarrio gets another chance in Pa. Derby

Photos attached (information below)

Pennsylvania Derby favorite Taiba reminds Baffert of Silver Charm

In his brief career, Zedan Racing Stables’ Taiba has shown enormous potential. And, on occasion, extreme talent.

The son of Gun Runner has shipped to Parx Racing from trainer Bob Baffert’s California base and was made the 5-2 morning line favorite by track racing secretary David Osojnak for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby.

Taiba is the most lightly raced colt among the 11 runners in the 1 1/8-mile Derby with two wins and a second in four career starts.

“This horse is just learning how to run,” Baffert said. “He is just figuring it all out.”

After breaking his maiden by 71/2 lengths in his first start March 5, Taiba jumped into the deep end of the pool when he ran in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. And Taiba certainly liked the water as he was a no-doubt-about-it winner by 2 1/4 lengths.

He flubbed in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby when he was 17th. He re-emerged in early summer and was back, finishing second, beaten a head by Pennsylvania Derby rival Cyberknife in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park.

Baffert was very encouraged by that effort and expects big things Saturday.

“I have seen a more willingness in his works,” Baffert said. “I love the fact that he’s a fighter. He won’t razzle-dazzle you in the mornings, but you will get a fight from him. He just fights.”

When asked if Taiba reminds him of any other horse he has trained, Baffert did not hesitate in saying Silver Charm, who won the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness for him.

“He has a lot of talent,” Baffert said. “He has always had that.”

–Tim Wilkin

Cyberknife ready for another Grade 1 opportunity

Brad Cox watched Cyberknife cool out from his half-mile breeze Sept. 10 at Churchill Downs and pondered what would be next for Al Gold’s 3-year-old son of Gun Runner.

“What am I going to do with this horse if I don’t run him?” Cox asked that day. “There are not a lot of options; really none left against straight 3-year-olds.”

Cox and Gold, who races Cyberknife in the black and gold colors of his Gold Square, decided on Saturday’s $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. Cyberknife, the 3-1 second choice for the 1 1/8-mile Pennsylvania Derby, bids for his third Grade 1 victory of 2022 Saturday. He finished second behind Epicenter last time out in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

Cyberknife breezed a half in :49 Sept. 10, and another 5 furlongs in 1:01.20 last Saturday at Churchill.

“He really is doing well,” Cox said. “Once again, he’s in this race because of how well he’s doing. I didn’t really think anything about this until last week, and I spoke to Al Gold about it and we thought he deserved it.

“He’s a Grade 1 horse and it’s a Grade 1 race. And look, I’m excited about matching up with Taiba. He’s a very good horse, a Grade 1 winner in his own right. There are some other very good horses in the race. It looks like a really good group of horses.”

Cyberknife, who arrived in the Philadelphia area Tuesday and trained on the main track Wednesday morning, will make his eighth start of 2022 in the Pennsylvania Derby. He brings four wins and a bankroll of $1,751,520 this year, tops among the Derby field.

Cyberknife started his sophomore campaign with a sixth in the Grade 3 Lecomte in late January at Fair Grounds. He won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby in early April at Oaklawn, finished 18th in the Kentucky Derby in May, won the Grade 3 Matt Winn in mid-June at Churchill and the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes in late July at Monmouth Park.

“That’s exactly right,” Cox said when Cyberknife’s 2022 campaign was called likened to a throwback.

– Tom Law

Cotillion trio leads Pletcher’s Parx assault

Todd Pletcher likens his typical hectic fall with his usual frenetic spring.

“They’re actually very similar – April and May and September and October. Similar,” the Hall of Fame trainer said this week when asked which season was easier to navigate.

Pletcher busy autumn includes a big day Saturday at Parx Racing, when he runs three fillies in the co-featured Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion Stakes and a bevy of others on the undercard. Pletcher entered 10 horses on the betPARX Pennsylvania Derby and Cotillion Day card, and with other runners in New York and Kentucky, and breezers for major stakes down the road there simply isn’t enough of one man to go around.

“Like always, you need to be in about three places at once,” Pletcher said.

Pletcher’s Cotillion trio could spark a big day, which will start early when he breezes Horse of the Year candidate and Breeders’ Cup Classic contender Life Is Good at Saratoga Race Course. Pletcher runs Goddess of Fire, Green Up and Shahama in the 1 1/16-mile Cotillion, a race he’s won three times.

“Looks like a busy day and hopefully we can have some luck,” Pletcher said.

Green Up, 6-1 on the morning line for owner Team Valor International, rides a four-race win streak into the Cotillion. The daughter of Upstart defeated Interstatedaydream and Cotillion entrant Morning Matcha last time out in the Aug. 23 Cathryn Sophia Stakes at Parx.

“The obvious question here is it’s a step up in class,” Pletcher said. “She seemed to really enjoy herself at Parx last time. You will see some horses that don’t love the surface there, so it’s always encouraging when you have one that will run well over it.”

Red Oak Stable homebred Goddess of Fire, third in the Grade 1 Alabama last time and 5-1 on the line; and Shahama, winner of the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks and 8-1; both make their first starts at Parx.

Goddess of Fire finished 6 1/4 lengths behind stablemate Nest and 2 lengths behind Cotillion entrant and Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath in the Alabama, racing with blinkers for the first time in her nine-start career. The daughter of Mineshaft runs in blinkers again Saturday.

“It seemed to lock her in a little bit,” Pletcher said. “The blinkers maybe helped a little last time. We also hope cutting her back from a mile and a quarter she can come with a little stronger late run.”

KHK Racing’s Shahama, unbeaten in four starts in Dubai before coming to the U.S. this spring, won the Monmouth Oaks in late July after a second in the Grade 2 Mother Goose and a sixth in the Kentucky Oaks. Pletcher briefly considered the Alabama for Shahama, but with Nest and Goddess of Fire in the field, didn’t think about it long after the Monmouth Oaks.

“We’ve been targeting this since then and she’s trained well for this,” Pletcher said of the Cotillion. “I’m sure she’ll try hard like she always does and, hopefully, she can take another step forward.

“With the Alabama, we had Nest in there; then when it looked like a short field we decided to give it a try with Goddess of Fire and a couple more jumped in late. So, we said ‘let’s stay on target with this race for Shahama.’ We felt like with Shahama, to get the opportunity to run in a Grade 1 and not have to run against Nest, and a couple of her other stablemates, that this was the spot.”

– Tom Law

White Abarrio gets another chance in Pennsylvania Derby

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. can’t get the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Stakes out of his mind.

For the life of him, he can’t figure out what happened to White Abarrio in the signature race of the summer meeting at Monmouth Park.

White Abarrio, owned by C2 Racing Stable and La Milagrosa Stable, ran a dud in the Haskell, finishing seventh in the field of eight. He was beaten 34 1/2 lengths by Cyberknife.

Now, here comes another chance. Joseph has entered White Abarrio in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing. The son of Race Day has much to prove to his trainer and just about everyone else who follows horse racing when he enters the starting gate for the 1 1/8-mile Derby. His odds reflect that as he is 8-1 on the morning line.

“We are going into this hopeful,” said Joseph, who will also saddle Skippylongstocking in Derby. “It’s hard to go over there with confidence after that (Haskell). When a horse runs like that, it puts a question in the back of your mind.”

White Abarrio has won four of eight career starts and all of the wins have come at his home track at Gulfstream Park.

After the Haskell, Joseph said White Abarrio was checked from head to toe and nothing was remiss. The race was one that disappointed the trainer but also one that could not be explained.

“He didn’t show up the last time, and, since that last race, we have freshened him,” Joseph said.

He kept the horse, as well as Skippylongstocking, at Saratoga Race Course after that meet ended, calling it a “vacation.”

Since then, he said White Abarrio has trained “as good as he has ever trained.”

Both horses will ship to Parx on Friday.

“If White Abarrio shows up, it’s a tough race,” Joseph said. “We know he is capable. At Saratoga, we kept building him up and we are happy coming into the Parx race. We are coming with a fresh horse.”

White Abarrio will get a new rider as Luis Saez will be on board for the first time. Joel Rosaro rode him in the Haskell and Tyler Gaffalione was his jockey in the four races before that.

– Tim Wilkin

$1,000,000 G1 Pennsylvania Derby favorite Taiba with Efrain Santana aboard gallops on Sept. 21 at Parx Racing in Bensalem, PA. Photo by Nikki Sherman/EQUI-PHOTO.