Alogon gets better with age; Dry Powder finds softer spot
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Alogon, a four-time stakes winner trained by Ned Allard, will make his 7-year-old debut in the $100,000 Get Serious Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth Park. The battle-hardened turf sprinter might be getting up there in years, but his trainer isn’t one to question a good thing.
“Some horses can go on and some can’t, but he’s been training dynamite,” Allard said. “He feels super.”
Far from a fading old-timer at the end of last year, Alogon reached new heights in September when he shipped to Aqueduct and won the Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint with a 97 Beyer Speed Figure. It marked his first graded stakes triumph after 24 career starts.
“He went out on a real good note last fall,” Allard said. “I started off on an aggressive note [last year], and I would have rather done it in reverse. But as it turned out, he always seems to come around really well in the fall.”
Allard said he will ship to Monmouth because of convenient timing, as it took him longer to get the 7-year-old ready this year. Alogon last ran over the New Jersey course in July 2023, when he earned his first stakes victory in the $100,000 Wolf Hill.
With several contenders likely to go for the early lead in the five-furlong sprint, Alogon and jockey Forest Boyce should save ground from a stalking position along the rail.
Nothing Better, a potential pacesetter trained by Jorge Duarte Jr., will scratch after winning a Penn National allowance on Wednesday, but the shortened field of six older males is not short on pace.
The appropriately named Speed Figures will return to stakes company with a clear plan for trainer Kelly Breen. The 5-year-old gelding has taken the early lead in 13 consecutive starts.
“We haven’t really messed with him too much about trying to rate because he’s done so well showing his speed,” Breen said.
In his stakes debut at Tampa Bay Downs earlier this year, Speed Figures nearly stole the $100,000 Turf Dash at 16-1, finishing a close fourth behind My Boy Prince, the next-out winner of the Grade 2 Shakertown at Keeneland. In May, Speed Figures wrapped up his Florida stint with a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure when he won a starter allowance at Gulfstream Park.
Speed Figures could overpower a field full of front-running types, but Souper Quest, Fore Harp, and Coppola will all have the chance to push him along.
Trainer George Weaver and Governor Sam are searching for class relief after trying the Grade 1 Jaipur at Saratoga. The 4-year-old gelding ran eighth in that deep field but could have a better chance of closing at Monmouth.
“The horse had a great 2-year-old and 3-year-old year, earned a lot of purse money, big races,” Weaver said. “But now he’s a 4-year-old, and we’re in the pros. This is the third start of his form cycle. He’s a horse doing really well.”
Governor Sam last ran at Monmouth in August 2024, when he won the $100,000 Tyro in his third career start.
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Lady's Secret
Dry Powder has been a relative joy for Chad Summers in 11 career starts, but if the trainer were to ask for anything more, it would be consistency. After coming up short in two graded stakes last month, she may be able to straighten herself out in the $100,000 Lady’s Secret Stakes on Sunday.
“She’s won at Gulfstream, she’s won at Parx, she’s run super at Aqueduct,” Summers said. “It’s just one of those things where you really need to have the opportunity to just show up and be a little bit more consistent.”
After finishing second in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx and running in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last year, Dry Powder seemed poised to step forward as a 4-year-old when she romped home by 5 3/4 lengths in a second-level allowance at Gulfstream in March.
Summers took the dominant score as a sign of improvement as well, stepping her all the way back up to the Grade 1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs on May 1. She never contended in that field and returned eight days later in the Grade 2 Ruffian at Aqueduct, finishing evenly for fourth.
“We took a swing running back in the Ruffian in eight days,” Summers said. “She’s come out of it really well. We’re excited about the future.”
Inefficiency, a 4-year-old filly trained by Chad Brown, finished ahead of Dry Powder in the Ruffian, running third, beaten 2 3/4 lengths, in her stakes debut. She will stretch out to 1 1/16 miles in her fourth start and should be the favorite in the field of six fillies and mares.
Ivy Girl, a 3-year-old filly trained by Amelia Green, will face older rivals for the first time in the midst of a busy 2026 campaign. In April, she went off at 26-1 in the $150,000 Weber City Miss at Laurel Park and flew home to earn her second stakes victory.
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