Parx Racing Picks – Monday, September 21, 2020

Parx Racing picks up this week right where it left off last week–with races full of underdog possibilities and longshot value bets galore. Parx Racing is, incidentally, one of the few horse tracks open to spectators, who can expect a sunny but cool day at the track today, with highs in the mid-60s and winds around 12 mph.

Read on for my tips, picks, and predictions for Parx Racing today.

This is a starter allowance race for three-year-olds and upward running a distance of 6-1/2 furlongs for a purse of $23,000.

I’m backing the 9/5 morning line favorite in this race—Thundershook, with Mychel Sanchez in the irons. Not only does this four-year-old gelding have the best record in this field, he’s on a roll, having won four of his last five races. Overall, he’s finished in the money 16 times out of 22 career starts, and won six of them.

With three 20/1 longshots in this seven-horse field, you’d expect at least one of them to be a value bet—and a case can, in fact, be made for a show ticket on Get the W, ridden by Laureano Flores, Jr. This seven-year-old gelding moneyed 22 of his 48 career starts, winning five of them. What pushes this into the “just do it” category is that Flores brings his seven-pound apprentice allowance to the game.

This is a claiming race for three-year-olds and upward running a distance of 1-1/16 miles on turf for a purse of $23,000.

Plenty of so-so horses in this claiming race, so I am going with skill and commitment with a win bet on the 7/2 entry, National Honor, with Frankie Pennington aboard. I say skill because Pennington is the winningest jockey in this race, and I say commitment because National Honor’s connections brought an ace jockey to the battle. For the horse’s part, I can only note that this five-year-old gelding moneyed 12 of his 25 career starts and won four of them.

Surprisingly, I found a 20/1 longshot in this race that is a solid value show bet—Flat Bill, ridden by veteran jockey Angel Castillo. This five-year-old gelding moneyed 15 of his 30 career starts, winning five of them.

This is an allowance optional claiming race for fillies and mares three years old and upward running a distance of one mile for a purse of $41,000.

I’m going with the fourth-favored (5/1) Monaco Princess, with Roberto J. Rosado in the irons. This four-year-old filly moneyed 12 of her 19 career starts, winning six of them, which makes her statistically the frontrunner here.

Sorry, but there are no long-odds entries in this race worth risking our longshot money.

Win: Monaco Princess 5/1

I found plenty of other surprise moneymakers at the two other tracks I’m covering today: