Veteran racehorse Ben's Cat will face nine challengers Saturday as the 8-year-old gelding defends his two consecutive wins in the $200,000 Parx Dash Handicap at Parx Racing.
Trained by King Leatherbury, Ben's Cat will start the five-furlong turf sprint from post 9 in the 10-horse field. His regular jockey Julian Pimentel will be in the saddle.
Two years ago, Ben's Cat first won the event by two lengths as a 10-1 longshot against eight rivals and repeated last year as the 13-10 second pick with 4-5 favorite Tightend Touchdown finishing second. He was second in the inaugural Dash in 2011.
Owned by The Jim Stable, Ben's Cat has won 26 of 40 lifetime starts and is on the verge of passing the $2 million mark in career earnings, standing now at $1,985,990.
Tightend Touchdown has drawn post 2 for his try at beating Ben's Cat. Kendrick Carmouche has the mount on the 5-year-old chestnut gelding for trainer Jason Servis and the Mr. Amore Stable.
Tightend Touchdown is coming off a victory on May 31 in the Pennsylvania Governor's Cup at Penn National. He dead heated for second in last year's Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. The gelding has banked $654,045 with 10 wins in 24 career starts.
Here is the field for the Parx Dash in post position order: Mongolian Saturday, E T Baird; Tightend Touchdown, Kendrick Carmouche; Stormofthecentury, Stewart Elliott; Atlantic Seaboard, Pablo Fragoso; Bold Thunder, Jose Ferrer; This Ain't No Bull, no jockey; Sharp Sensation, Frankie Pennington; Quality Lass, no jockey; Ben's Cat, Julian Pimentel and Marchman, Robby Albarado.
Post time for the Parx Dash will be approximately 3:41 p.m. ET.
[SportsNetwork.com]
