A Breeder’s Paradise
One of the best race days on the Pennsylvania calendar was held on Saturday, July 18, as Parx Racing celebrated the 25th Pennsylvania Day at the Races, featuring 12 competitive races for state-breds worth over $1 million, including four stakes.
Maximus Meridius won the Banjo Picker Stakes for trainer Robert ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. and owners LC Racing and Wellesley stable.
It was a breeder’s paradise right from the start when homebreds accounted for six of the dozen races, including three of the stakes.
Bred by Co-owner Craig Harris Ponder and Dream won the 2026 Lil E. Tee Stakes, completing a double on the day for trainer Robert “Butch” Reid Jr., Jockey Mychel Sanchez and LC Racing.
Ten Plus Ten (Tight Ten) kicked off the festivities for Rich Miller when he clobbered six rivals to win the opener by 5¼ lengths as the 6-5 favorite. Taking the sixth race was 4-year-old filly Gruene Hall, who romped by 5¾ lengths for breeder/owner Marshall Gramm’s Ten Strike Stable. Big Boys Answer, a 6-year-old son of Uptowncharlybrown, continued the trend with another daylight score, by 3¼ lengths, in the seventh race for Cavanaugh Breen Farm.
Parx Racing’s first 2-year-old race of the year went off as the third, with six first-time starters lining up for a $65,000 maiden special weight for fillies going 4½ furlongs. Down the Farm proved much the best under apprentice rider Magglio Sanchez, crossing under the wire 2 lengths ahead of her closest rival. The pretty bay daughter of Weigelia was bred by Carolyn Sleeter and scored for trainer Bobbi Anne Hawthorne and owner Margaret Rose Stable. Down the Farm is out of the stakes-winning Bullsbay mare Miss Bullistic.
Bartlett and Frankie Pennington won the Storm Cat Stakes for trainer John Servis.
Before the day’s first stakes on the card, family and friends gathered in the winner’s circle to remember the late breeder Charles B. Lyman III, whose Maui Meadow Farm in West Chester is the oldest working Thoroughbred farm in Pennsylvania.
Stakes action got underway in the eighth, the $100,000 Banjo Picker, a 6-furlong sprint that drew some of the toughest older horses in the region, including last year’s PA-Bred champion sprinter Maximus Meridius, and four-time stakes winner Twisted Ride, boasting career earnings over $850,000, including a Banjo Picker victory the last time it was run in 2023. Winning Time (Winchill) and Crab Daddy (Uncle Lino) were both victors as juveniles of the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes. Houghton Shuffle (Medallist) had captured the 2025 Page McKenney Handicap. And with hard-knocking allowance winners Wax Box and Windsor Gold, the field just got even deeper.
Maximus Meridius was the favorite with the bettors. The leggy 5-year-old bay gelding was making his first start since February. The four-time stakes winner had shone over the winter between his 3 and 4-year-old seasons with impressive stakes victories in New York against open company, and finished out 2025 with two consecutive stakes wins back at home in Pennsylvania.
Nature’s Candy and Andy Hernandez captured the Dr. Teresa Garofalo memorial Stakes for trainer Hugo Padilla.
Second-choice Winning Time burst out of the gate and led the field through an opening quarter in :22.62. With a half run in :45.38, Maximus Meridius pressed Winning Time before taking over on the turn. Winning Time folded, but Houghton Shuffle gobbled up ground down the stretch, surging late. However, Maximus Meridius would not be denied the victory, holding off his foe by a neck. Crab Daddy was 2¼ lengths back in third. Ridden to victory by Mychel Sanchez, Maximus Meridius completed the distance in 1:10.66 and crossed the $700,000 threshold in career earnings with his ninth career victory in 23 starts. The winner is trained by Robert “Butch” Reid Jr. for owners LC Racing LLC and Wellesley Stable.
Maximus Meridius was bred by Ann LaPides’s Westerly Farm on the site formerly known as Walnut Green Farm, which had been run by Butch’s brother Mark Reid. The gelding is by Maximus Mischief out of the winning Quiet American mare Quiet Virtue.
Five sophomores contested the $100,000 Lil E. Tee Stakes in the next race, and while there was some promising competition, there really was no doubt as to who the winner would be. Ponder and Dream, a son of former Pennsylvania sire Uncle Lino, went off as the overwhelming favorite after easily defeating older horses in May. Mailata, last year’s PA-Bred champion 2-year-old male, came with a resume that included three straight wins as a juvenile, all at Parx, including a 19-length score in the Future Stars Stakes. Stakes-placed Mister Me, plus Our Notion and Oaklawn invader Our Magical Moon completed the field.
It was an easy double for Reid, Sanchez and LC Racing, despite Ponder and Dream taking a solid nosedive at the break. However, he quickly recovered and just drew away, cantering under the wire 14¾ lengths on top and covering the mile and 70 yards in 1:43.28. The well strung-out field saw Mister Me finish second, 6¾ lengths ahead of Our Notion. It was a truly special victory for breeder Craig Harris, who co-owns the chestnut colt with Glen Bennett of LC Racing. Ponder and Dream is out of the To Honor and Serve mare Spanky, who won nine of 21 career starts.
The $100,000 Storm Cat Stakes for older horses going a mile and 70 yards stirred things up, albeit just slightly. The core group behind the first two stakes teamed up with graded stakes winner Uncle Heavy (Social Inclusion), though several foes looked formidable. An intriguing entry was Gordian Knot (Social Inclusion), a five-time stakes winning sprinter with career earnings approaching $700,000.
But it was Bartlett who went off as the odds-on choice, and he was ready for the challenge. The Not This Time gelding sat just off pacesetter Quasi Warrior before passing him at the quarter pole and effortlessly separating himself from the rest of the field. In deep stretch, he had to repel a late charge from Uncle Heavy, but rider Frankie Pennington kept him focused and the duo won by 2 lengths in 1:43.77. Gordian Knot finished third.
A homebred for Greg Newell’s Newell Thoroughbreds Ltd., Bartlett is out of the winning Smarty Jones mare Brilliant Sunshine. Trainer John Servis is very familiar with this family. In addition to Bartlett and his dam, Servis trained Bartlett’s PA-bred half-sister Precious (Fed Biz), a two-time stakes winner. Precious herself is the dam of a 2-year-old named Vero, who is actively breezing at Parx. Servis also started the career of another daughter of Brilliant Sunshine, last year’s leading PA Breeding Fund Recipient Pachelbel (Hoppertunity).
The final stakes on the card featured fillies and mares in the $100,000 Dr. Teresa Garofalo Memorial. The second the gates opened, the outcome was never in doubt. Nature’s Candy jetted out to the lead and never looked back, winning handily under Andy Hernandez by 2 1/4 lengths. She covered the seven furlongs in 1:24.12. Nature’s Candy was briefly stalked by six-time stakes winner Carmelina, who uncharacteristically faded entering the stretch. Multiple stakes winner Foxy Junior broke a step slow but closed well to finish second, 3¾ lengths ahead of Icona Mama.
Nature’s Candy is trained by Hugo Padilla and is a third-generation homebred for Dr. Yaroslaw “Jerry” Kolybabiuk’s Freedom Racing LLC. A daughter of Uncle Lino when he stood at stud in Pennsylvania, Nature’s Candy is out of the Speightstown mare Easter Blossom and is a half-sister to stakes-placed Angel of Hope (Warrior’s Reward). This was the second career stakes victory for Nature’s Candy, who also captured last fall’s Disco Chick Stakes, a race coincidentally named after another of Kolybabiuk’s star mares.
Additional winners on the day included Onceinawhile (Smarty Jones), Sister Eve (Warrior’s Reward), Lady Annabelle (Golddigger’s Boy) and Connor’s Crew (Warrior’s Reward).