O’Brien closed out a highly-successful month of May for First Dude with a monster run through the stretch at Parx Racing yesterday to get winner No. 25 for the stallion by Stephen Got Even, at the same time putting him in position to break the $1 million mark in progeny earnings for 2022 sometime in June. 

    O’Brien collected $35,280 while breaking his maiden in his 17th start, and lifting his bank account to $96,010 on a record of 1-6-2. That brought First Dude’s total to $869,002.

    The 4-year-old colt bred in Pennyslvania by Ocala’s Best A Luck Farm was a $30,000 Timonium 2-year-old. He was ridden by Angel Castillo, who was aboard just eight days earlier when O’Brien finished a distant second going seven furlongs over the main track. In this one, at 7 1/2 furlongs and only his second try on the grass, O’Brien was off fourth but trailed pace-setter Saketumi by about 10 lengths down the backstretch. Castillo urged him closer to the lead on the turn, and O’Brien uncorked his powerful run through the stretch, making up 6 or 7 lengths from the sixteenth pole home to get up in the final stride and win by a nose. He was clocked in 1:30.22, less than two seconds off the course record.