Teddy’s Rocket seeks first stakes win in Penn Mile at Penn National

Teddy’s Rocket is the kind of colt who turns a minor-stakes race into a real class test. A debut winner at Saratoga last summer, he will head to the Grade 3, $400,000 Penn Mile looking for his first stakes victory and a clear answer on how high his turf ceiling really is.

The 13th running of the Penn Mile will bring seven 3-year-olds to a one-mile turf race Friday night, May 29, at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, Pennsylvania, and every one of them is still chasing a first graded stakes win. That is what makes this more than a routine overnight feature. Honey Dutch has been tabbed the 2-1 early favorite, while Teddy’s Rocket sits as the 3-1 third choice, a sign that the market sees him as one of the main threats even after a seven-month layoff and a return run that still left room to improve.

The case for Teddy’s Rocket is straightforward enough. After breaking his maiden at Saratoga, he was shipped to Woodbine for the Grade 1 Summer Stakes and ran well to finish fourth of 10, beaten 1 1/2 lengths. Then came the long break. He returned on April 25, and the Penn Mile will tell the story of what that time off produced: more maturity, better conditioning, and the kind of finishing punch that separates a promising colt from a legitimate summer turf player.

Manuel Franco is named to ride Teddy’s Rocket, and the pairing adds a layer of history to the race. Franco won the 2018 Penn Mile aboard Hawkish, while Miguel Clement’s late father, Christophe Clement, won the 2017 edition with Frostmourne. Christophe Clement died in May 2025 at age 59, so Teddy’s Rocket carries more than a handicapping angle for the Clement barn. It is also a chance to add another Penn Mile chapter to a family that already knows what this race can do for a young turf horse.

That history matters because the Penn Mile has become a useful springboard for late-blooming sophomores. Recent winners include Dream On in 2025, First World War in 2024, Major Dude in 2023, Wow Whata Summer in 2022 and Frostmourne in 2017, while Casa Creed finished second in 2019 before becoming a far bigger name later on. The Penn Mile sits inside a 10-race card that also includes the $150,000 Penn Oaks and two $75,000 stakes, the Lyphard Stakes and the Alphabet Soup Handicap. For Teddy’s Rocket, the assignment is simple: run like a horse ready to move from interesting prospect to graded-stakes force.