Penn Mile purse lures strong field

The biggest horse race this weekend will take place in Grantville, Pa. No, not at Belmont Park, Churchill Downs or Hollywood Park. The race is the $500,000 Penn Mile on Saturday at Penn National.

The Penn Mile is fast on the heels of the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic. Both Penn National and Charles Town are racinos. Racinos is a mixture of the words racetrack and casino because they also offer slot machines.

Their respective states, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, mandate a percentage of slot revenue goes into the horse racing purse account. Thus, the tracks offer strong purses for cheaper horses and host huge stakes races that attract stars from around the country.

Recently, the Charles Town Classic attracted the last two winners of the Santa Anita Handicap, Game On Dude and Ron the Greek. Game On Dude won the Classic for trainer Bob Baffert.

The Penn Mile has a strong field of eight 3-year-old grass runners. The field is divided equally between the haves and have-nots.

The four haves are Noble Tune (2-1), Rydilluc (5-2), Jack Milton (3-1) and Charming Kitten (4-1). I found it nearly impossible to separate them.

Noble Tune last out won the American Turf on Oaks Day at Churchill Downs. Many will recall his runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Rydilluc won the Palm Beach at Gulfstream Park and is undefeated in three turf routes. Jack Milton last out won the Transylvania at Keeneland. Charming Kitten ran out of his comfort zone when ninth in the Kentucky Derby, but is 5-for-5 in the money in turf stakes.

The two races before the Penn Mile are also rich stakes, the $250,000 Mountainview Handicap and the $150,000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup. It’s not often one sees jockeys Javier Castellano, John Velazquez and Joel Rosario at Penn National, but it’ll be a treat for the racing fans there.

■ SOCAL POWER — The Memorial Day card at Belmont Park saw Southern California star power in Midnight Lucky and Sahara Sky take the day’s biggest stakes. Midnight Lucky, for Bob Baffert, overpowered Close Hatches and Kauai Katie to win the Grade 1 Acorn.

Then Sahara Sky, for Jerry Hollendorfer, beat the best field of older horses assembled so far this year in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile.

It’s a good sign that despite the announced closure of Hollywood Park the Southern California circuit still has an amazing array of star horses, jockeys and trainers.

It behooves the powers to be in California to seek compromise and finally get on the same page. The recent California Horse Racing Board meeting was disconcerting for its inability to reach consensus. The extended dates in 2014 for Del Mar and Santa Anita can be a positive, but the heavy lifting is still to be done.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @richeng4propick.