Browning being put to big test

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Trainer Jane Cibelli concedes running Browning in a third-level $50,000 optional claimer for fillies and mares on the turf Friday at Monmouth Park is a stretch - literally and figuratively. But it is an experiment that needs to be conducted.

Browning has the outside post in the seven-horse field going one mile. A 4-year-old, Browning is 3 for 14 as she makes her second start for Cibelli, having previously been trained here by Tim Hills, and by Mark Casse for one start at Woodbine.

Browning was a turf sprinter for most of her career, a category with limited opportunities.

"Those races are so hard to find, they are just not there," Cibelli said. "We entered her all over the place, and the races either didn't go, or we got rained off the turf. This is a bit of an experiment to see if she'll get the distance."

This will be her first two-turn turf effort.

"It's hard to say," Cibelli said. "She breezes like a horse that would probably get distance. If you do it on any turf course, it would be this one because speed tends to hold here."

Paco Lopez will be aboard.

It will also be a test to see where Browning fits on class. The race attracted a solid group with stakes experience, including Namaste's Wish, the runner-up in the Virginia Oaks last year for trainer Bill Mott. This will be her third start at Monmouth, where she has yet to hit the board.

Namaste's Wish was fifth in the Epitome Stakes on Breeders' Cup weekend in the fall of 2007 and got fifth last year in the Grade 3 Boiling Springs Stakes. She faced a similar field here last time out, rallying from eighth to get fourth.

Joe Bravo will ride.

Remoulade was third, one spot better than Namaste's Wish, in her Monmouth debut on Aug. 14. A 5-year-old trained by Michael Matz, she has two wins and a pair of seconds in six starts this season.

Quiet Harbor is an up-and-comer for trainer Shug McGaughey. A 4-year-old homebred racing for Stuart Janney III, Quiet Harbor has won two in a row, both at Monmouth. She smartly marched through her first- and second-level allowance conditions with a pair of rousing rallies that produced narrow victories.

Quiet Harbor's 82 was the best last-race Beyer Speed Figure in the field. Eddie Castro will again try to time her closing kick.