At Parx, a three-week festival of top-caliber racing

WHEN 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome came to Bensalem two years ago to run in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, the race, the culmination of the Fall Festival at Parx Racing, got giant national exposure and became forevermore a logical pre-Breeders' Cup stop for the nation's best 3-year-olds.

The Festival has become much more than its final chapter, with great racing through Sept. 24 when the three-week bonanza will culminate with the $1 million Pa. Derby and $1 million Cotillion. It begins Saturday with Pennsylvania's Day at the Races - five $100,000 stakes for Pennsylvania-breds and a new race designed to attract one horse, a local filly who got her start at Parx last October and became a national player when she won the May 6 Kentucky Oaks.

Cathryn Sophia will run in the $150,000 Princess of Sylmar Stakes. The race is Cathryn Sophia's bridge to the Cotillion where she will face unbeaten (10-for-10) Songbird. Cathryn Sophia is 5-for-7 with $1 million in earnings. Her wins have been by a combined 44 lengths. Songbird has earned $2.7 million and won her races by a combined 55 lengths.

And the Cotillion will be the appetizer for the Pa. Derby, which at the moment, is scheduled to have Derby winner Nyquist and Preakness winner Exaggerator in their seventh meeting.

"I'm not looking for a big race from her," John Servis, Cathryn Sophia's trainer said of the Princess of Sylmar. "I'm looking for her to win . . . but we're using this race as a prep for the Cotillion."

Cathryn Sophia has not run since finishing third in the June 11 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park. The rest was by design. Servis and owner Chuck Zacney really want to win the Cotillion, a rare home game for a filly that has run at five different tracks since her debut. She was given a break with the Cotillion as the goal. The filly had been at Saratoga much of the summer, but came home two weeks ago.

"I took her up there basically for the weather because she's a cool-weather horse," Servis said. "She doesn't really love the hot weather . . . She's ready."

This Saturday's card is terrific. Monday's will be even better, with four stakes worth $1 million, including two grass sprints, the Smarty Jones for older horses and a marathon.

There will be serious racing each of the next two Saturdays as well, all leading up to a day that because of the Cotillion matchup, the first race between the two great fillies, as well as a potentially championship-determining race between the Derby and Preakness winner, should be the most significant in the history of the track and commonwealth.

First, it's Cathryn Sophia.

"It's going to be awesome," Zacney said. "John did the right thing by giving her a nice long break. She certainly deserved it. She's been working great."

After that, it's Cathryn Sophia vs. Songbird and Nyquist vs. Exaggerator.

"I'm looking forward to it," Servis said, "Been a long time coming. My filly will bring her 'A' game. Whether she's good enough or not, I don't know. Songbird is an awful good filly. It will be interesting. It will be a fun race for the fans. I'm not looking forward to it on the other side because it might be Cathryn's last race."

If the filly runs well, she will probably get a chance in the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Distaff at Santa Anita, with a plan to sell her shortly thereafter. Cathryn Sophia was purchased for $30,000, has won that $1 million and is probably worth $2 million more if somebody wants to keep racing her and/or breed her.

Meanwhile, Zacney and the usual entourage, formed in the Afleet Alex days, will have as much fun as possible as long it lasts, starting up again Saturday in the aptly-named trackside Cotillion Room, with a crew of 100.

"This is just warmups,'' Zacney promised.

@DickJerardi