![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/The_Puma_PA_Derby_Sept_2026_614x400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Photo:<\/p>\n
Scott Serio \/ Eclipse Sportswire<\/p>\n
Bensalem, Pa.<\/p>\n
The Puma<\/a> won at the top level for the first time when he rallied from eighth place, six lengths behind, to take the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby<\/a> at Parx Racing on Saturday. The son of Essential Quality benefited from the addition of blinkers for the first time after finishing fourth in the Travers (G1) and the Haskell Stakes (G1) in his most recent starts.<\/p>\n Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano had ridden The Puma in four of the 3-year-old\u2019s six career starts, including the Travers, and he suggested the equipment change.<\/p>\n Long shots Talk to Me Jimmy and Ponder and Dream set the pace for the first six furlongs of the 1 1\/8-mile race with fractions of 23.27, 47.69 and 1:12.10. The Puma settled toward the back of the 10-horse field, raced four wide down the backstretch and stayed clear as he headed into the final turn. When Castellano asked the chestnut colt to run, he passed horses quickly, getting from sixth to the lead by the stretch call.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Javier moved, he went to the front very, very, very fast,\u201d trainer Gustavo Delgado said.<\/p>\n The Puma led by three lengths at that point and then had to hold off a late run from favorite Further Ado (2-1), who would get within a half-length as they hit the wire in a final time of 1:49.10.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was always in the bridle,\u201d Castellano added. \u201cWhen I asked, he gave it to me right away. At some point I said, \u2018Oh my God, you moved too early Javier.\u2019 But he felt good, he was happy and it was a great performance.\u201d<\/p>\n The winner went off as the 5-2 second choice and returned $7.40, $3.40 and $2.60. The Puma completed a $2 exacta with the top two betting choices that paid $28.60. Sassmaster, 7-1 in his fourth career start, finished third to complete a $1 trifecta worth $174.<\/p>\n Our Moneyman finished fourth while the pacesetters Talk to Me Jimmy and Ponder and Dream faded to finish seventh and 10th. Zihnal was scratched from the original field of 11.<\/p>\n The Puma had tried to win a Grade 1 three other times, including the nose loss in the Florida Derby three weeks after winning the Tampa Bay Derby on the Kentucky Derby trail. The Pennsylvania Derby victory came three weeks after the Travers.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I got off the horse after the Travers I told Gustavo, \u2018this horse needs blinkers. We need blinkers. I think he\u2019s going to move forward to the next level.\u2019 That\u2019s the goal with the horse,\u201d Castellano said. \u201cHe\u2019s there, but if you are going to compete with the better horses in the country you need to put something, blinkers, develop the horse. He did an amazing job with the horse.\u201d<\/p>\n After his second career victory, and his first at Parx, The Puma improved his record to 7: 2-2-1 and became a millionaire with earnings of $1,122,280.<\/p>\n \u201cVery happy and very exciting,\u201d Delgado said. \u201cRight now, we will wait before thinking about the Breeders\u2019 Cup. We will go back to Saratoga, and we will meet with my partners and my son (assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr.) and then decide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Scott Serio \/ Eclipse Sportswire Bensalem, Pa. The Puma won at the top level for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-290037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290037","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=290037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}