Honey Dutch 2-1 Early Favorite For 13th running of Penn Mile (G3)

Jockey Javier Castellano and double Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse seek back-to-back wins in the $400,000 Penn Mile (Grade 3) on Friday, May 29, at Penn National Race Course's with two-time stakes winner Alpyland.

Casse has won the Penn Mile, a one-mile turf test, three times - no other trainer has won it more than once - and Castellano has won the race twice, equaling Irad Ortiz Jr., as he prepares to ride in his record seventh Penn Mile.

The Penn Mile card features an All-Stakes Turf Pick 4 including the $75,000 Alphabet Soup Handicap and $75,000 Lyphard Stakes, both for Pennsylvania-bred horses, the $150,000 Penn Oaks and the Penn Mile. First race post is 5 p.m. EDT.

The morning-line favorite role falls to Honey Dutch (2-1) from the Kentucky-based Whit Beckman stable. Honey Dutch has finished on the board in five straight stakes races, including a third-place finish in the Grade 1 American Turf on Derby Day at Churchill Downs.

The Knicks Go colt has gone 6-for-6 in the money on the turf with $379,000 earned in his nine-race career. Beckman gained national spotlight this spring as trainer of long shot Kentucky Derby third-place finisher Ocelli. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount on Honey Dutch.

Alpyland finished two lengths behind Honey Dutch in the American Turf and bested that rival on New Year's Day at Gulfstream Park in the Dania Beach Stakes. A 3-year-old gelding by Vekoma, Alpyland has won four of nine lifetime starts, with three of them on the turf.

The turf-rich Miguel Clement barn trained Teddy's Rocket is the 3-1 third choice. Lightly raced, all three of his lifetime starts have come on the turf, with a maiden win at Saratoga last summer. Manuel Franco, winner of the 2018 Penn Mile aboard Hawkish, will ride. Clement's late father Christophe won the 2017 Penn Mile with Frostmourne.

John Velazquez has the mount on the French-bred Immortalised who rides a three-race winning streak with his most recent victory notched March 28 in the Cutler Bay Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Immortalised runs for Brendan Walsh, winner of the 2024 Penn Mile with First World War.

$150,000 Penn Oaks

The morning-line favorite in the $150,000 Penn Oaks at one mile on the turf will be Bandigara (9-5), trained by Miguel Clement and ridden by Franco. The English-bred makes her U.S. and seasonal debut in the Oaks.

As with the Penn Mile, Casse and Castellano have the second choice on the morning line, this time with Final Accord (5-2). No trainer has won the Penn Mile and Penn Oaks in the same year, and Frankie Dettori stands as the lone jockey to win both races in the same year (2024). Final Accord won the Matron Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct last year.

Two other trainers in the Oaks have had previous success in the event. George "Rusty" Arnold II (Call On Me) won the 2024 edition with stakes-record-setting Poolside With Slim. Jack Sisterson (Sutura) won the 2023 edition of the Oaks with Malleymoo.

New York invader Modarosa rates as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the Lyphard, and Fierce And Strong, 2025 winner of the Alphabet Soup, draws the 5-2 morning-line favorite tag to repeat in that race.

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