Familiar Faces Top 2014 Penn Gaming Challenge

Owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, trainer Chad Brown, and jockey Javier Castellano finished atop the standings in the inaugural Penn Gaming Racing Challenge, which concluded Nov. 29.

The Challenge series linked 2014 stakes held at racetracks owned by Penn National Gaming Inc. Each of the winners earned a paid trip to the PNGI-owned M Resort in Las Vegas. In addition, any horse the Ramseys or Brown run in an unrestricted stakes race at a PNGI-owned track in 2015 will be entitled to a refund of all fees paid upon the horse starting.

The Ramseys teamed with Brown and Castellano to take the $500,000 Penn Mile at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course with eventual Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (gr. IT) winner Bobby's Kitten. They were the only owners to win multiple Challenge races; they also won the John B. Connally Turf Cup (gr. IIIT)) at Sam Houston Race Park with Admiral Kitten.

Off the strength of those two victories, the Ramseys accumulated 52 points to beat owners George and Lori Hall by 11 points. The Halls had previously won a race in the series when Pants On Fire took the Wild and Wonderful Stakes at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. Most recently, they sent out Bern Identity to a runner-up finish behind Ben's Cat in the Fabulous Strike Stakes at at Penn National.

Castellano took home the honor as the top rider following his banner Penn Mile day that included not only the victory on Bobby's Kitten, but also wins aboard Last Gunfighter for Brown in the $200,000 Mountainview Handicap and Tightend Touchdown in the $150,000 Pennsylvania Governor's Cup. With those three wins added to a third-place finish on Ready to Act in the $100,000 Penn Oaks, Castellano's only four mounts in the Challenge combined to rack up nearly $500,000 in earnings on the Penn Mile program.

The 37-year-old Castellano, who won his first Eclipse Award this past year as the country's top jockey, was the only rider to win three races in the Challenge.

Other jockeys with multiple wins in the series were Angel Serpa, who won the Penn Oaks at Penn National on Pin Oak Stud's Interrupted and $100,000 Pink Ribbon Stakes at Charles Town on Geeky Gorgeous; Jevian Toledo, who piloted Miss Behaviour to her victory in the $500,000 Charles Town Oaks (gr. III) and Stormin Monarcho to his win in the $100,000 Swatara Stakes at Penn National; and Kerwin Clark, victorious aboard  Cassatt in the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks and Lasting Bubbles in the $75,000 Zia Park Distaff, both at Zia Park Hotel & Casino.

Serpa, the runner-up, finished 18 points behind Castellano.

The trainer category turned out to be the closest of the three races, with Brown shading Tom Amoss by six points. Along with the two wins on Penn Mile night, Brown had a third-place finishes with Ready to Act in the Penn Oaks and Storming Inti in the Penn Mile.

Amoss was the only trainer other than Brown to condition the winner of two series races with Sum of the Parts in the Champion Energy Stakes at Sam Houston and Rise Up in the Robert Hilton Memorial presented by Budweiser at Charles Town. He also sent out Kiss to Remember to a second-place finish in the Charles Town Oaks.

This year's Penn Gaming Racing Challenge linked 21 stakes valued at a total of $5.25 million. Details on the 2015 Challenge will be available when stakes schedules are finalized.