On tap: Penn Mile timer * The Racing Biz

Who’re we watching? Let’s see what’s on tap in the mid-Atlantic this weekend:

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6:00 p.m. Post time for the first from Penn National, the Penn Oaks. A field of eight will travel a mile on the lawn, and it’s the kickoff of the all-stakes Pick 4.
6:27 p.m. The 45th running of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup features a Pennsylvania-bred, Last Heartbreaker, as well as two Maryland-breds. Favored Ben’s Cat will look to score the 30th win of his remarkable career for owner/trainer/breeder King Leatherbury, but it won’t be easy. The top four from the Cat’s last outing, a win in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint, are here, including Bold Thunder, who led that race before settling for second, and Maryland-bred Grateful Nation, who was fourth.
6:54 p.m. Time for the fourth running of the $200,000 Mountainview Handicap, which just might be the deepest event on the card. A bevy of graded stakes stars is slated to gather for the 1 1/8 mile test on the main track. The lone locally bred horse, PA-bred Edge of Reality, figures to be doing a rain dance before the race. The Graham Motion trainee is three-for-six on off tracks and has just three additional wins, from 15 starts, on every other type of surface.
7:22 p.m. Pennsylvania-bred Granny’s Kitten hasn’t done anything wrong to date — two wins from two starts for the sophomore son of Kitten’s Joy — and the Mike Maker trainee will get a stern class test in the Grade 3 Penn Mile. He’s 6-1 in his first try in stakes company and will face a half-dozen stakes winners here, including Triple Crown refugee Ocho Ocho Ocho and two-time Grade 3 winner Night Prowler.
7:49 p.m. The evening’s stakes activity concludes with the 1 1/16 mile Lyphard for Pennsylvania–bred fillies and mares. Michael Salvaggio trainee Lenape Rim (7-2) made her seasonal debut in this event a year ago, posting a solid score, and she figures to rate a solid shot to do that once again Saturday. She has won three of six career turf starts. Two others worth a gander: Royal Renege (8-1), recently second in Pimlico allowance company when stretching out to this distance; and Sassy Little Cat (8-1), who won a Pimlico allowance at 27-1 odds in a career-best effort.