Bishops Bay holds off Chunk of Gold in Iselin Stakes
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Bishops Bay, coming off a photo-finish defeat at Monmouth Park in June, shipped right back to New Jersey on Saturday to get the better end of another thriller in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes.
The 6-year-old is now a five-time graded stakes winner for trainer Brad Cox.
“On the turn for home, I thought we had it,” Cox said. “Obviously, the horse on the inside was very game and made it very interesting. But Bishops Bay really likes to fight. And he showed that today, and he was able to get his head down.”
Stars and Stripes, who won the $200,000 Birdstone at Saratoga on Thursday, and the longshot Sergeant Capps both scratched, shortening the stakes field at Monmouth to four older males.
Though he clearly improved in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile last time out, Bishops Bay suffered his third straight defeat when East Avenue rallied late to beat him by a nose in that race. The Iselin was expected to be a similarly strong rematch between the two, but East Avenue failed to give his best and faded to last.
Instead of East Avenue, the stubborn front-runner Chunk of Gold was Bishops Bay’s main opponent in the stretch, giving the veteran plenty to worry about in the 1 1/16-mile race. The Ethan West trainee was making his second start as a 4-year-old.
Jockey Jomar Torres worked with an uncontested lead aboard Chunk of Gold for most of the race, completing the opening quarter-mile in 23.43 seconds and half-mile in 46.92.
With yet another rival giving him trouble near the wire, Bishops Bay nearly suffered another nightmarish defeat and might have come up short again if not for a determined ride from jockey Luis Rivera Jr., who was stepping in for Flavien Prat.
In Rivera’s first race aboard Bishops Bay, the Monmouth-based rider rode the classy stakes winner perfectly, settling just off the pace in the early going and advancing on the leader entering the far turn.
Rivera never managed to urge Bishops Bay to a commanding lead, but he poked a head in front and had enough at the end to hold off the resurgent front-runner to his inside, prevailing by a neck in a grinding stretch duel. Bishops Bay completed the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:41.92 and paid $5 to win.
“He’s an awesome horse. It means a lot to us,” Cox said. “I was a part of the team that picked him out when he was a yearling . I remember looking at him at Keeneland and falling in love with him. It took us a little while to get him to the races, but he's been ultra-consistent now for three and a half years.”
After running fourth in the $20 million Saudi Cup and a dull second in the Grade 3 Westchester to begin his 2026 campaign, Bishops Bay seemed overdue for a win when he fired well but came up just short in the Salvator Mile. A fighter throughout his career, he was game for another scrap on Saturday.
Chunk of Gold, far from disgraced in his second start this year, finished 5 3/4 lengths clear of the 20-1 longshot La Frost. In nine starts as a 3-year-old for West last year, the colt ran in the Kentucky Derby, won the Grade 3 West Virginia Derby, and finished second in three more graded stakes. His stubbornness was on full display again.
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