Multiple Stakes-Winning 4YO Sharp in Half-Mile Move at Parx
Factor It In Springs 8-1 Upset in Sunday’s Allowance Feature
Live Action Returns to Laurel with 10-Race Program July 15

BALTIMORE – Susan Quick and Christopher Feifarek’s multiple stakes-winning homebred Beren, whose 17 career races have come at 10 different racetracks, will make his Maryland debut next weekend in the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel Park.

A 4-year-old son of two-time Grade 3-winning sprinter and millionaire Weigelia, Beren tuned up for the De Francis with a sharp half-mile work in 47.29 seconds Sunday over his home track at Parx, second-fastest of 16 horses.

“He is headed that way,” trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. said. “He did extremely well this morning. He did it nice and easy, even though he went pretty quick. He finished full of energy and galloped out real strong, so we couldn’t be any happier with him right now.”

The six-furlong De Francis for 3-year-olds and up highlights the second of three busy stakes Saturdays in July at Laurel. It is joined on the program by the $100,000 Alma North for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting 6 ½ furlongs and a pair of $100,000 events scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the grass – the Prince George’s County for 3-year-olds and up and Big Dreyfus for fillies and mares 3 and older.

All four races are part of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championship (MATCH) Series. Beren picked up seven points for finishing second behind fellow multiple stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Ny Traffic in the six-furlong Chocolate Town June 17 at Penn National.

“We got him involved in the MATCH Series a little bit up at Penn National and he did very well, finished second and got some points there,” Reid said. “I know it ends up back here at Parx so we’re trying to kind of stay along that path, and it fit into his schedule so well. We like to keep at least a month between races for him, and this is perfect. That’s the reason we decided to go ahead and take a shot.”

Beren has been second in each of his last three races – the Steel Valley Sprint at Mahoning Valley last November in his 2021 finale and the April 25 Page McKenney at Parx prior to his latest run. Winless in three starts at 2, he went 7-for-12 as a 3-year-old including stakes wins in the Danzig at Penn National; Parx Summer Sprint and Crowd Pleaser at Parx; and Paradise Creek and Gold Fever at Belmont Park.

Sunday’s work was the first for Beren since the week prior to the Chocolate Town, where he went a half in 47.14 seconds.

“He enjoys himself, and he does it pretty easily, too,” Reid said. “He’s always an aggressive trainer in the morning. We try and contain him when it gets closer to the races but he does very well with it, and he doesn’t overextend himself. It works out well.”

Reid has won 863 career races since 1985, a dozen in graded-stakes, including Grade 1 winners Vequist, the 2-year-old filly champion of 2020, and Poseidon’s Warrior. This will be his first time in the De Francis.

“I went to the University of Maryland and we lived in Maryland for a long time, so I’m a big fan of Maryland racing and I would love to win a race like the De Francis,” he said.

Notes: Michael Scheffres’ 6-year-old Factor It In ($19) edged past favored pacesetter Spun and Won in deep stretch and held off a furious late bid on the far outside from stakes winner Alwaysinahurry to spring an 8-1 upset of Sunday’s featured Race 7, a third-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up, in 1:03.25 for 5 ½ furlongs over a fast main track. Multiple stakes winner Eastern Bay was fourth, snapping a two-race win streak … Louis Ulman and Stephen Parker’s Whiteknuckleflyer ($3.40) was a popular 1 ½-length winner of Race 6, a 5 ½-furlong allowance for Maryland-bred/sired fillies and mares 3 and up originally carded for the grass. The winning time was 1:03.99 … A trio of allowances for Maryland-bred/sired horses scheduled for 5 ½ furlongs and one mile on the grass and six furlongs on them main track highlight a 10-race program when live racing returns to Laurel Friday, July 15 to kick off De Francis Dash weekend. Post time is 12:40 p.m.