Edie Meeny Miny Mo gets class, distance tests in Monmouth Oaks
Long on talent, Edie Meeny Miny Mo figures to be short on value Saturday at Monmouth Park in the Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Oaks.
You’re supposed to demand a fair price on a horse trying new things, and as flashy as Edie Meeny Miny Mo looked in her two starts, runaway wins, she’s not going to offer it.
Edie Meeny Miny Mo won an April 23 maiden race at Pimlico by more than four lengths and overcame a class hike and a troubled trip to win a first-level allowance race there June 13 by six. Both starts came at six furlongs, and now Edie Meeny Miny Mo will be asked to race around two turns while jumping into stakes competition. She drew the outside post in a field of nine and will be ridden by Victor Espinoza, her third different jockey.
Edie Meeny Miny Mo might be good enough to overcome it all, but what’s the right price to bet on that?
“I’m very confident in her,” trainer Miguel Vera told Monmouth publicity. “I think she is a real racehorse. We’re going to find out more on Saturday. But she has always shown she should be in these kind of races.”
Vera expressed confidence Edie Meeny Miny Mo stays two turns. The filly’s siblings that raced showed route ability, and she’s a scopey horse who, in addition to possessing excellent speed, has finished off her races with plenty left, ears pricked at the wire. A $400,000 2-year-old in training purchase, Edie Meeny Miny Mo got stuck inside in a tight spot bending into the turn of her most recent race, but gamely held position while being steadied, and dashed around a tiring foe before coming through a gap on the rail at the five-sixteenths pole, crushing foes from there. Still, she’s broken somewhat poorly in both starts, and her lead changes in the homestretch have been awkward and delayed.
Four entrants in the 1 1/16-mile Oaks – Midnight Obsession, Leader of the Band, She a Hot Mess, and Orbs Baby Girl – exit the Delaware Oaks, where they finished, respectively, second, third, fifth, and sixth behind runaway winner Crazy Beautiful.
Midnight Obsession merits the strongest consideration among them, and not just because she earned the highest placing. Trained by John Servis, Midnight Obsession has yet to start on a fast track while racing at four different venues during her brief career. She traveled nicely while in the bridle tracking the Delaware Oaks pace, showing encouraging rateable speed, and after Crazy Beautiful opened a wide margin in the stretch, Midnight Obsession was allowed to finish up with little encouragement from her rider through the final furlong. She draws leading rider Paco Lopez and can win the Oaks.
Servis also trains Leader of the Band, who has more speed than she showed in the Delaware Oaks, where she lost considerable ground.
Allworthy beat soft one-turn mile opposition winning maiden and allowance starts at Gulfstream in her last two races. Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., the filly breezes and races in an extension cup blinker. She more than held her own with older male Math Wizard working a quick half-mile on July 20 at Saratoga.
◗ Founder should have a strong pace at which to run and can rally to win the $100,000 Tale of the Cat Stakes on Saturday. The 12-race card’s supporting feature is for 3-year-olds over 1 1/16 miles on turf. Chad Brown raced Founder in blinkers for the first time July 3, and Founder responded with a career-best 84 Beyer Speed Figure closing for second behind talented Wolfie’s Dynaghost. In his lone turf try, in June, Founder finished sixth but ran the fastest final quarter-mile, 22.50 seconds, in that Belmont allowance.