{"id":289943,"date":"2026-09-19T23:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/289943\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T23:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T23:26:12","slug":"the-puma-prevails-in-pennsylvania-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/289943\/","title":{"rendered":"The Puma Prevails in Pennsylvania Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Puma<\/a>\u00a0, under Javier Castellano, made a huge move around the far turn, opened up a 3-length lead\u00a0through the stretch, and held off a late charge from Further Ado<\/a>\ud83d\udd25<\/a>\u00a0 to win the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) by a half-length Sept. 19 at Parx Racing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trained by Gustavo Delgado, the son of Essential Quality<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 finished the 1 1\/8-mile race in 1:49.10 after Ponder and Dream<\/a>\u00a0 ran the first quarter in :23.27 and\u00a0Talk to Me Jimmy<\/a>\u00a0 took over by a half-length with middle fractions of\u00a0:47.69 and 1:12.10.<\/p>\n

The Puma, ch, 3\/c

\nEssential Quality \u2014 Eve of War, by Declaration of War<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Owner: OGMA Investments LLC, High Step Racing, TCC Stables LLC, YNG Stables LLC and JR Ranch

\nBreeder: Hidden Brook Farm & Brian Kahn (KY)

\nTrainer: Gustavo Delgado

\nJockey: Javier Castellano

\nInformation provided by Equibase<\/a> at time of entry.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Pedigree Notes

\nEssential Quality stands at Darley.<\/p>\n


\n <\/p>\n

Sale History

\nOBSAPR2025 \u2022 $150,000 \u2022 Consignor: Hidden Brook \u2022 Buyer: Marquee Bloodstock, agent.

\nKEESEP2024 \u2022 ($95,000 RNA) \u2022 Consignor: Hidden Brook.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The blinkers surely helped The Puma as he showed a powerful sustained drive, passing horses one by one until he took the lead from Sassmaster<\/a>\u00a0 approaching the top of the stretch. From there, the only challenge came from Further Ado, who finished second. Sassmaster held on for third.<\/p>\n

The Puma, owned by OGMA Investments, High Step Racing, TCC Stables, YNG Stables, and JR Ranch, paid $7.40 for a $2 wager. The victory, the second in seven starts, put\u00a0him over the $1 million mark in career earnings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hidden Brook Farm and Brian Kahn bred the 3-year-old colt, who was purchased by Marquee Bloodstock for $150,000 at the 2025 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.\u00a0With the victory, The Puma gave his sire his first grade 1 winner.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated.<\/p>\n

Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Puma\u00a0, under Javier Castellano, made a huge move around the far turn, opened up a 3-length lead\u00a0through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[120381,120378,116725,120377,120376,120379,57359,120380,85195,28,109496,30,29,57357],"class_list":["post-289943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-2025-ocala-breeders-sales-spring-2-year-olds-in-training-sale","tag-brian-kahn","tag-gustavo-delgado","tag-hidden-brook-farm","tag-javier-castellano","tag-marquee-bloodstock","tag-northeast-region","tag-ogma-investments","tag-parx-racing","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-derby","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-thoroughbred-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}