Fast track would make Mind Control tough to beat in Mr. Prospector Stakes

Trainer Greg Sacco has been keeping close tabs on the weather in advance of Mind Control’s start in the $100,000 Mr. Prospector on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

“It’s supposed to be gorgeous,” Sacco said.

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Mind Control caught a sloppy track for the Forego last out at Saratoga, and the multiple Grade 1 winner finished an uncharacteristic eighth. Sacco is hoping the forecast holds for Saturday.

“The last race we were in the paddock and the heavens opened up,” he said. “I knew we were in trouble. The only poor race he ran – other than a couple of times when he stumbled from the gate – was in the slop in the Carter.”

In between his sixth-place finish in the Carter on June 6 at Belmont and the Forego on Aug. 29 was a big third to Volatile in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga. A repeat of that July 25 performance, for which Mind Control earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 99, might make him tough to contain when he faces six others at that same six-furlong distance Saturday.

“We were thrilled with that race,” Sacco said of the Vanderbilt. “Volatile is the best sprinter in the country.”

Mind Control is making only his second appearance at Monmouth, but he has been training at the Jersey Shore track. He won a maiden special weight at six furlongs at Monmouth in 2018, the same distance over which his dam, Feel That Fire, won the track’s Blue Sparkler. Mind Control has worked fast over the local strip since the Forego.

“This race came up a little quicker – we usually space his races,” Sacco said. “But he really didn’t run that day in the Forego. He cooled out in 10 minutes, shipped home to Monmouth, was jumping out of his skin.”

Sacco worked Mind Control a half-mile in 48.20 seconds Sept. 6 – the second fastest time of 57 moves at the distance that morning at Monmouth – and said the horse galloped out five-eighths in 1:00.

“He did it well within himself,” Sacco said.

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Sacco noted Mind Control will have the benefit of running out of his own stall Saturday.

“He gets to run at home,” he said. “This is our home base. He likes Monmouth.”

Mind Control is a six-time stakes winner whose biggest victories have come in the Grade 1 Hopeful and Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens. The 4-year-old by Stay Thirsty has earned more than $1 million and races for his breeder, Red Oak Stable, and Madaket Stables.

Jose Ferrer has the mount from post 3.

The chief threat could be Awesome Anywhere, a recent allowance winner at Monmouth who owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Figure, a 98. The race also has drawn the stakes winner Wendell Fong and the Grade 3-placed Epic Dreamer.