Bradester back at favorite track for Majestic Light
Bradester will be making his first start of the year and returning to the site of his most important victory when he runs Saturday at Monmouth Park in the $75,000 Majestic Light Stakes. The one-mile race is open to 3-year-olds and up and drew a field of seven.
Bradester has made five starts at Monmouth, all in graded stakes, with two wins and three runner-up finishes. Last year at the Jersey Shore track, he captured the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup in August and the Grade 3 Salvator Mile in July after finishing second in those races in 2014. He also was the runner-up to Valid last August in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth.
The 109 Beyer Speed Figure that Bradester earned in the Salvator Mile last year is the highest mark in Saturday’s field.
“He just loves the place,” trainer Eddie Kenneally said of Monmouth. “I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but he seems to really handle the racetrack, and it certainly looks like Monmouth is where he runs his best races.”
Owned by Joseph W. Sutton, Bradester will be making his first start since finishing ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Oct. 30 at Keeneland. He has been training steadily in Kentucky for his 2016 debut, turning in a pair of bullet five-furlong workouts at Churchill Downs this month before ripping through a half-mile in 46.80 seconds there May 16.
Jockey Joe Bravo will ride the horse for the first time when they break from post 2.
“He’s usually a horse who needs a race, so I don’t know that his first start off the bench will be his best, but the horse is training better than ever, so he’s ready, he’s fit, and he’s good to go,” Kenneally said. “He should run very well.”
Encryption, Albano, and Admirals War Chest will be making their first starts of the year in this spot, which could give the recently raced Adirondack King, Stormin Monarcho, and Just Call Kenny a fitness edge.
Adirondack King enters with the best recent form, having won the $100,000 Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in March before losing a rich, no-conditions allowance race at Parx by a nose last month to Roxbury N Overton.
Albano earned the biggest victory of his career at Monmouth in June 2014, taking the Grade 3 Pegasus Stakes. He’ll be making his first start since finishing fourth in the Philip H. Iselin Stakes in August.