All eyes on Book'em Danno as the champ stays home for Mr. Prospector
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On the eve of Haskell Day, Monmouth Park will give flowers to one of its own when the New Jersey-bred Book’em Danno stays home for the $200,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes. On “Book’em Danno Day,” the reigning Eclipse champion male sprinter will receive a raucous homecoming celebration while he seeks his 10th stakes victory.
When asked about the Friday festivities, trainer Derek Ryan repeatedly said it will simply be another day for his 5-year-old.
“There’s some pressure, but when you get this type of horse, you’ve just got to play it by ear,” Ryan said. “If you can’t take the heat, don’t go in the kitchen, as they say.”
Book’em Danno enters listed company at Monmouth off an authoritative victory in the Grade 3 True North at Saratoga last month, where he outkicked Bentornato, the 2025 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, by three-quarters of a length. He earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure in his fifth graded stakes score.
Last year, the New Jersey-bred standout earned Eclipse Award honors despite skipping the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, having swept the True North, Grade 2 Alfred G. Vanderbilt, and Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga.
Ryan passed on the 2025 Breeders’ Cup to avoid shipping across the country to a speed-favoring track at Del Mar, but with the championship event at Keeneland this year, the trainer said he doesn’t plan to push his gelding too early.
“That’s why we’re going a different route this year,” Ryan said. “If we weren’t going to the Breeders’ Cup, we probably would be back at Saratoga [for the Vanderbilt on July 25]. But the plan is to get through this one, back to Saratoga probably [for the Forego on Aug. 29], and then on to the Breeders’ Cup.”
The search for a brief reprieve has led Ryan and Book’em Danno back to the gelding’s home track for the first time since July 2024, when he won the $100,000 Jersey Shore as a budding 3-year-old.
On Friday, the track will offer a Book’em Danno T-shirt giveaway to the first 2,000 attendees and free admission for all Oceanport residents. The Mr. Prospector, which typically offers a $100,000 purse, doubles that amount on the condition that a multiple Grade 1 winner starts in the race.
Trainer David Jacobson entered graded stakes winners Banishing and Durante in the field of nine older males, but both will scratch. Banishing will instead run in the $175,000 Jeff Hall Memorial on Saturday at Ellis Park, while Durante will take some time to recover from a quarter crack.
Three stakes winners remain in the shortened group, but only one will enter the Mr. Prospector in top form. Trainer Ned Allard said he’s willing to take a historic swing at the reigning champ with Quint’s Brew, a six-time stakes winner who rallied to win the $100,000 Alapocas Run at Delaware Park last month.
“Well, our horse is good right now,” Allard said. “There are only so many sprints in the country. Book’em Danno looks unbeatable, but if Secretariat can get beat by Onion, anything can happen in a horse race.”
Silver Slugger and Full Moon Madness both won stakes in their 2025 campaigns but have since regressed, leaving them with work to do against Monmouth’s top heavyweight.
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