Like so many of First Dude’s sons and daughters before him, Roan Mountain is getting better with age.

    The 4-year-old gelding bred by Don Dizney came from out of left field to win at a mile and 70 yards at Parx Racing yesterday, and raised his record to 4-6-5 in 22 starts. But in his last nine tries, all at Parx, he’s posted a record of 2-4-2, and in the one where he was off the board, he lost his rider while trying to evade a fallen horse.  

    Roan Mountain broke slowly from the No. 1 post and rider Luis Ocasio found himself eight to 10 lengths behind the leaders as they headed down the backstretch. They began to close the gap nearing the final turn, went three wide approaching the stretch, and gamely ran down the two pace-setters in the shadow of the wire to score by half a length. 

    The gelding was clocked in 1:45.05, paid $3 as favorite, earned a check for $13,800, and as a tribute to his recent form, was claimed out of the race. He’s just over $4,000 away from reaching the $100,000 mark for his career, with $53,330 of the total coming this year.