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Pa. Derby day a huge success

The Park handle record is broken by $5 million as thousands come out to see California Chrome.

Bayern, with jockey Martin Garcia, takes the lead on the way to winning the Pennsylvania Derby horse race. California Chrome finished sixth. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)
Bayern, with jockey Martin Garcia, takes the lead on the way to winning the Pennsylvania Derby horse race. California Chrome finished sixth. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)Read more

WHEN PARX RACING management made the decisions to move the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby to later in September, institute a bonus system and couple the track's signature race with the Cotillion Stakes to make it an "event," even the most optimistic never could have envisioned a day like Saturday.

A glorious final Saturday of summer, parking lots overflowing, the grounds definitely more crowded than they have been in years. (There is no admission so there is no way to know how many people were there.) As the 5:40 post time approached for the Derby, fans were sitting and standing in places that had never been used just to get a glimpse of the first Kentucky Derby winner ever to run at Park - in the paddock and the walking ring and on the track during the post parade.

California Chrome was the racing story. The other story was how well the event came off. The facility was jammed, but not at all uncomfortable. With less than a month's notice that Chrome was coming, the preparation was obvious, the organization clear. It all just worked.

The day really had everything but a perfect racing ending. That part, the races, you can't script. But you can plan an event. The biggest day in Pennsylvania horse racing history was an overwhelming success by just about any measure.

The numerical measure was $10,396,671, the total money bet at the track and around the country, smashing the old track handle record by $5 million. You give American horse players something attractive to bet on and they will bet and bet big. Beyond that, the fans at the track knew they were part of something special.

"I thought everybody had a great time," said Joe Wilson, the track's chief operating officer. "We were servicing people very well. You need to be able to make a bet, watch the race, get something to eat, get something to drink and use the restroom. We pulled that off without a doubt."

Wilson brought in a parking company that works Philadelphia Union games.

"They were just efficiently parking our entire lot to keep both businesses running," Wilson said.

The track shares a parking lot with Parx Casino.

"That was the whole key, not to jam up the parking lot and having traffic backing up on Street Road and stuff," Wilson said. "We had no issues."

The overflow was parked in a nearby field. Shuttle buses brought them to the building and took them back.

There was more than $3 million bet on the Derby itself, an increase of nearly 300 percent from 2013. Much of that money was bet on California Chrome to win, place, show, in exactas, trifectas and superfectas. Chrome betters got nothing monetarily in return as the Derby winner, after a trip from racing hell, finished sixth. But anybody who was at the track or watching on television had to feel like they were part of something tangible - a major event, headlined by a star, an unexpected ending.

They also got to see a track record fall in the Derby, a record that was set 26 days after the track opened on Nov. 4, 1974. Selari Sprit ran a mile and an eighth in 1:47 on Nov. 30, 1974. This Pa. Derby went in 1:46.96 as Haskell winner Bayern ran just like he did on July 27 at Monmouth Park, blowing the field away by 5 3/4 lengths.

Given the way the race was run, the only way Chrome was going to beat Bayern was to challenge him from the start, survive that duel and hold off the closers. We will never know how that might have turned out because jockey Victor Espinoza on Chrome was tentative even after his mount broke brilliantly from the inside post. Rather than let Chrome's natural speed run him into position, Espinoza quickly found himself in an impossible position.

"The other riders, they worried about me, they didn't worry about the one in the front [Bayern] and I knew I was in trouble in the first turn," Espinoza said. "They were like blocking in front of me and it was hard to catch the other horse. Sometimes the other ones don't ride to win, they ride to beat horses."

Edgar Prado and Javier Castellano have won more than 10,000 races between them. They knew Chrome was vulnerable if they could hold him inside where his history, including the Belmont Stakes and several of his 2-year-old races, demonstrated that he was uncomfortable.

Chrome was frustrated and so was his trainer, Art Sherman.

"He couldn't get out," Sherman said. "They had him trapped. We can't get a break. They were walking the first half a mile. He's running up his ass. He hates to be in there. It's too frustrating for him."

The surface was yielding very fast times all day. So when Bayern ran his first quarter mile in 24.07 seconds and the half mile in 47.89 seconds, anybody who had been paying attention knew the race was over. Put Bayern on a clear lead in slow fractions and he has not been beaten or really even challenged. His five wins this year have been by a combined 39 lengths. When he was not so comfortable in the Preakness and Travers, he lost those races by a combined 41 lengths.

"That was just a powerful performance," Bayern's trainer, Bob Baffert, said from California where he watched the race. "He broke well and they let us go and [jockey] Martin [Garcia] hustled to get away from California Chrome. When California Chrome was pinned in there, I knew it was going be tough for California Chrome. He was the target, we weren't the target. When Bayern runs like that, nobody's going to beat him."

Either Prado on CJ's Awesome or Castellano on Protonico were always just to Chrome's outside from the start until the stretch. When Chrome finally had some daylight with 300 yards to go, his fight, sapped by using up so much nervous energy, was already gone. Espinoza did the smart thing in the final 200 yards. He essentially stopped riding Chrome, saving him for the Nov. 1 Breeders' Cup Classic where, with a clear trip like he had during that six-race winning streak, he could still be dangerous.

"I'd just like to have him have a fair shake, with his style of running," Sherman said. "I haven't had that with the last two races."

Horse racing results are often determined by what happens during a race rather than the relative talents of the horses in the race. This Pa. Derby was a classic example of Racing 101 - the most accomplished horse does not always win.

Untapable title

The brilliant 3-year-old filly Untapable is no longer the unstoppable force she was in the winter and spring, but after winning the $1 million Cotillion by 1 length over Sweet Reason, she is 5-for-5 against fillies this year, with a combined margin of 32 lengths. That will give her the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly at year's end.

Untapable had a dream trip, sitting third behind dueling leaders and well clear of the fourth horse. The spring version of Untapable would have won by 10 lengths. This version was good enough to win, but not dominate.

Favorite Tale scorches

Pennsylvania bred Favorite Tale, trained at Parx by Lupe Preciado and ridden by top local jockey John Bisono, ran like an absolute wild horse to win the $300,000 Gallant Bob Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths over 3-5 favorite Fast Anna.

How fast was Paul Conaway's 3-year-old? Well, he went 21.33 seconds to the quarter, 43.38 to the half, 55.35 for 5 furlongs and finished out 6 furlongs in a scorching 1:08.16.

Conaway, who owns Wanamaker Tickets in the city, watched his horse win for the fifth time this year and increase his earnings to more than $400,000. Favorite Tale has run four times at his home track and never lost.