Vekoma’s Alpyland romps in Penn Mile (G3) for first graded win
May 30, 2026
Alpyland swept to the lead midway on the final turn on his way to a four-length victory in Friday night’s $400,000 Penn Mile (G3) at Penn National.
The 3-year-old, who already had a pair of listed wins to his credit, is the 10th lifetime graded winner for this year’s leading Third-Crop sire Vekoma.
Coming off a fourth-place finish to Honey Dutch in the American Turf (G1) on Derby Day at Churchill Downs, Alpyland faced that foe again on Friday. Bonsai Warrior set the early pace of :47.80 for a half-mile, with Alpyland in third just behind Honey Dutch.
Honey Dutch took the lead going into the final turn, but Alpyland quickly pounced and took over with about three furlongs to run. After a brief tussle, Alpyland proved too good and drew off impressively to finish in 1:34.17 on the firm turf.
“He settled nice and when Javier [Castellano] said go, he just pounced,” trainer Mark Casse said. “Honey Dutch beat us at Churchill pretty solidly, so for us to run by him the way we did, it was pretty impressive.”
Owned by D. J. Stable LLC, Alpyland is 5-0-2 in 10 starts and has earned $557,996. The bay was bred in Kentucky by Denis Villella.