Penny Memorial Handicap (Grade 3)- $200.000 Purse
PRX- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Turf
July 6, 2020

Only nine days of rest? No problem! When the race is practically named after you, you have to take the chance, and in the eighth running of the Penny Memorial Handicap on yielding turf, it would be Pennies picking up the victory. Arindel takes home the pennies in this win, getting the winners share of the $200.000 purse in this race for the first time in his career. That is also true for jockey A R Rodriguez. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:43.20, which was a little quicker then one prior time that the race also was run on yielding turf. Let’s take a look!

(1/4 Mile- :25.00)- The early lead goes to Twinny, the Maxmillion Farm filly that took home the win last year. She had an initial challenge from the eventual race winner, Arindel’s Pennies, but eventually takes a length lead in the opening quarter. Pennies is fine to sit back in a stalking position, and after a length and a half it’s Smokey Stover’s Kiwi Sunshine, the post time favorite, running in third. One more length back is where we find Threshold’s Pink Kitten, and Fill The Void, from Mb Stables.

(½ Mile- :49.85)- So much for Pennies just sitting back and being a stalker! Twinny decides to open up on the field in the first turn and into the backstretch, and has pulled out to a five length advantage. A R Rodriguez is obviously not worried about this while aboard Pennies, since he made no attempt to keep Pennies in close pursuit. The others in the field maintained their distance behind Pennies, paying no attention to last year’s winner.

(Top Of Stretch, 1.5F To Go)- Out in front, it is still Twinny, but that lead has mostly evaporated. Pennies, and the rest of the field, began to show more interest approaching the top of the turn, and made up considerable ground within it. Moving to the top of the stretch, Pennies was now within a length and a half, and it wasn’t only her. Fill The Void was also advancing quite nicely while in the money lane, and was a little less then three lengths back. Kiwi Sunshine was trying to stay with her, here. Pink Kitten did not have the same kind of response while within the turn, and was three lengths behind Pennies.

(Finish- 1:43.20)- If Pennies keeps running like this after nine days of rest, then Arindel is going to be racing her every week! She would be much the best in the stretch, passing Twinny with ease, and never allowing Fill The Void to close in on her. That rival was a length behind her for much of the way, and has to settle with being second by that margin. Kiwi Sunshine takes third, topping Twinny and Pink Kitten.

About The Winner- Pennies, trained by Arindel and ridden to victory by A R Rodriguez, is a four year old filly by Moment Of Madness, and is out of Laffin Decima. She was bred in New York by Aer Stables as a first quarter two year old, and acquired by Arindel, via Smokey Stover, with a $37.500 claim in April 2019. Congratulations to the connections! The win is just her third in 22 starts, and it’s her second stake win, both being graded. Her career earnings are now $348.060.

Track: Yielding
Time: :25   :49⁴  1:13³  1:43¹

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 5 – 2 Paid 11.10
$1 Trifecta: 5 – 2 – 3 Paid 11.00

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES