Penn National’s Governor’s Cup weekend will start with a bang this Friday. Three turf stakes races kick off the nine-race card that begins with an 5:45 ET post time. The featured $150,000 Governor’s Cup is the final leg of a Pick 3 wager that shapes up with a suggested $24 ticket this way:
Penn National Race 1 (5:45 p.m. EST)
FLAMINGO WAY is firing bullets in the morning for his first start in five months. He won on soft footing on the Penn National lawn after six months away last June and projects a dream trip in the $75,000 Marhsall Jenney Stakes packed with speed. JEAN VALJEAN ranged up on the hard-dueling leaders in a 5-1/2F turf allowance at Saratoga but was out-kicked by Creditworthy (4-7, $264k), Grade 3 winner Clock Tower and multiple graded stakes winner and turf millionaire Nobals. FIERCE AND STRONG, a two-time stakes winner with an 8-for-18 record and $366k bankroll on his home course, remains a late-running threat despite dull form to start the year.
Penn National Race 2 (6:14 p.m. EST)
RED ZONE RUNNER, a runaway main-track stakes winner at this distance, arrives in the $75,000 Crowd Pleaser Stakes for 3-year-olds off a pair of solid turf efforts. He dueled hard and held okay after the favorites passed by him in a $40,000 optional claiming race two back, then he set all the fractions and drew away to a 5-3/4-length allowance victory at this distance. JES SEE ME won five of his last six starts going away, including three straight one-mile claiming races on the Tampa Bay Downs turf this spring by a combined 17-1/2 lengths.
Penn National Race 3 (6:43 p.m. EST)
AIR RECRUIT won four of six starts in photo finishes since last July, his first appearances since the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. He is the one to beat in the Governor’s Cup but will have to defeat several in-form shippers to do so. I’DRATHERBEBLESSED posted a dozen 86-plus Beyer speed figures in his last 19 starts to surpass a half million in turf earnings as he tries to give trainer Mike Maker back-to-back wins in the 1-1-1/16-mile race. VERSUS starts at his sixth grass course in the last year and is worth using at a price in the Pick 3. He ran down the pace-controlling, 9-to-5 second favorite to win an optional claiming race on a ‘good’ Monmouth Park course last out.
Suggested $2 Pick 3
PEN 1st Race: 3, 7
PEN 2nd Race: 1, 8
PEN 3RD Race: 1, 4, 7
Cost for a $2 ticket: $24
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