A red alert for slots players heading to Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pa.: Saturday afternoon, you may not get your favorite parking spot.
Just up Smarty Jones Way from the main casino building, up to 20,000 people are expected to pack the racetrack to watch reigning Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner California Chrome compete in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby.
Extra tellers were being hired, a press room added to the ground floor, and the parking lots are expected to fill up, although attendance isn't expected to near the record 28,692 set in 1983. Doors will open at about 10 a.m., with an 10:25 a.m. post time for the first of 13 races. Post time for the Pennsylvania Derby is 4:40 p.m. (Admission is free.)
The card includes the $1 million Cotillion, which has a loaded field led by Kentucky Oaks winner Untapable. Two of Untapable's opponents, JoJo Warrior and Stopchargingmaria ran during Oaklawn's Racing Festival of the South, with JoJo Warrior finishing second in the April 12 Instant Racing Stakes and Stopchargingmaria a distant fourth to Sugar Shock in the April 5 Fantasy Stakes.
For the Pennsylvania Derby, the big question is the usual one when a big horse is coming off a layoff, as California Chrome has been since the Belmont Stakes.
He will be challenged by the third- and fourth-place finishers in the April 12 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park -- Bayern and Tapiture.
Both Bayern and Tapiture have won two races in the time since -- Bayern winning the 7-furlong Woody Stephens on Belmont Day and the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park the last weekend in August for trainer Bob Baffert. Tapiture is 2 for 2 since his 15th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, winning the Matt Wynn Stakes June 14 at Churchill Downs and the Aug. 2 West Virginia Derby for trainer Steve Asmussen.
California Chrome hasn't raced in 105 days, taking time off to recover from lacerations suffered in his Belmont defeat.
"It's been awhile since he's run -- I'm looking forward to it," California Chrome's trainer, Art Sherman, said Friday after the colt galloped and schooled in the starting gate.
Asked if Chrome is as good as Sherman had him before the layoff or whether he's working back to that as he aims for the Breeders Cup Classic, the trainer said, "Well, I'm working back to it. Sometimes, I'd be lying if you didn't have this funny feeling, is he going to be tight enough? I'll tell you one thing: when I worked him between races and I needed him to be a little more focused, he flew around there."
Chrome, the even-odds morning-line favorite, will be leaving from the No. 1 gate. Asked about his concern level about that, Sherman said that as an old jock himself, the rail is still the shortest way around.
"It's just how the rail is playing. If I look up and see a couple of horses are winning from the inside, I'll get pumped up a little. If nobody's winning from the inside, I'll get a little concerned. If you're the best horse, you can get there."
In this race, Haskell Invitational winner Bayern is the prime speed threat although Bayern backed up late in the Travers. Sherman talked about how if Chrome's jockey Victor Espinoza thinks the pace is too slow, "he might have to get to him a little quicker than he would want to."
With other competitors coming off more recent races, Sherman said, "I think they've got a pretty good edge on me. Ability-wise, my horse has done everything we could ask. He's won on a half-dozen different tracks. He's a runner."
Sports on 09/20/2014