Monmouth Park: Get Serious out to capture old glory in Red Bank

OCEANPORT, N.J. – The summer of 2010 at Monmouth Park was magical for Get Serious, as he won a trio of Grade 3 stakes during the meet.

Two years removed from that terrific season, Get Serious tries to turn back the clock on Wednesday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Bank Stakes on the turf, the feature on an 11-race holiday card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.

Get Serious bids for his first victory since the 2010 Red Bank.

The race attracted eight entrants for the one-mile race, with four – Boots Ahead, Queen’splatekitten, Monument Hill and El Commodore – cross-entered that same afternoon in the Grade 3 Poker Stakes at Belmont Park.

Now 8, Get Serious had a lost season in 2011. Between battling a leg infection and catching courses too soft for his speed-stalking style, Get Serious went winless in four tries.

The Red Bank will be his third start this year following a pair of foundation races here, a sixth in the Elkwood Stakes followed by a third against some salty competition in the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes.

[MONMOUTH PARK: Get PPs and watch Wednesday's full card live]

Trainer John Forbes sees nothing but positive indicators heading into the race.

“He’s training as well as he has in his life,” Forbes said. “He’s doing super, if we don’t get a lot of rain. He’s also showing more of an ability to rate a little.”

If back on his game, Get Serious will be tough in this spot. He is 10-0-1 in 18 Monmouth grass starts, and regular pilot Pablo Fragoso is set to ride.

This will be a litmus test, an opportunity for Get Serious to prove he can still compete effectively at this level.

“I think it is an important test,” Forbes said. “We’re satisfied that maybe he is a good as we’ve ever seen him. A lot of these veteran grass horses stay good for a long time.”

Of the horses committed to run in the Red Bank, Yummy With Butter looks like the main competition. He was fifth in the Monmouth Stakes, his first start at the meet. He was the locally based turf start last year, winning a pair of Grade 3’s here: the Oceanport and the Cliff Hanger.

Lubash is usually a factor in the statebred stakes in New York, while Hermosillo, last season’s champion New Jersey-bred, makes his grass debut at age 8.