Dark Artist fresh for Miss Liberty Stakes

The $75,000 Miss Liberty Stakes on Sunday drew a competitive field of nine, but none of the entrants knows her way around the Monmouth Park turf course better than Dark Artist, who last year won the Boiling Springs and Open Mind on the local grass.

The Miss Liberty, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares, tops a 13-race card. Sunday is the second day of the Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival at Monmouth, which will offer dishes from more than 40 vendors.

Dark Artist went 3 for 6 last season at age 3 for trainer Jane Cibelli and the Goodwood Racing VIII Partnership. Following her two Monmouth stakes wins, Cibelli sent her to Arlington Park for a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Pucker Up. She finished her campaign by running eighth in the Grade 2 Mrs. Revere at Churchill Downs.

The Miss Liberty will be Dark Artist’s first start in six months.

“I really felt last year she was screaming for time off, but with a 3-year-old, you have to get the black type when you can,” Cibelli said.

Not only is Dark Artist unbeaten on the Monmouth turf, Cibelli has started the meet with two wins and a third from her first three starters. She sent out Glory to Kitten to win a claiming race May 11 following a layoff of more than six months.

“I think Dark Artist is ready,” Cibelli said. “She’s very aggressive in her training. I don’t think she’ll need one.”

Cibelli said she likes the inside post for Dark Artist and that jockey Chris DeCarlo “is a seasoned rider, so that shouldn’t be a problem. We won a lot of races together back in the day.”

Cibelli and DeCarlo are 7 for 41 together (17 percent). Cibelli’s stable is 13 for 77 (16 percent) this year, went 44 for 239 (18 percent) in 2018, and was 8 for 42 at Monmouth (19 percent).

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Trainer Jimmy Toner won the opening-day Cliff Hanger Stakes with Hawkish and will try to take down the Miss Liberty with the front-running Coffee Crush, who has been facing some rugged competition. Coffee Crush, a 4-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, is coming off a third-place finish in the Plenty of Grace at Aqueduct to Fifty Five, who has won five of her last eight starts.

Two races ago, Coffee Crush set the pace in the Albert M. Stall Memorial and finished fourth behind Mitchell Road and Beau Recall. Mitchell Road came back to win the Grade 3 Gallorette on the Preakness undercard last weekend and is now 5 for 7. Beau Recall came back to win the New Orleans Ladies and the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day.

The Miss Liberty lineup also includes the first-, second-, and fifth-place finishers from the Powder Break Stakes at Gulfstream Park – Quebec, who races for Bobby Dibona; Fools Gold, trained by Chad Brown; and Hogans Holiday, conditioned by Marcus Vitali.

My Sistersledge, who got good for Mike Trombetta last fall, will be making her first start since winning the Maryland Million Ladies for the second consecutive year last October at Laurel Park.