Field for Hystericalady Stakes is short but solid

A trio of overachieving 3-year-old fillies will be seeking their initial stakes wins Monday in the $75,000 Hystericalady Stakes, a six-furlong sprint that tops the Memorial Day card at Monmouth Park.

The 12-race program also includes three first-level allowance races and should give everyone in attendance ample time to visit the Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival, which includes more than 40 vendors on the north side of the grandstand near the picnic area.

The six-horse Hystericalady will match Royal Charlotte, Miss Imperial, and Swap Meet.

Royal Charlotte failed to reach her reserve price at the 2017 Keeneland September sale, Miss Imperial sold for $13,000 at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October sale, and Swap Meet was claimed out of her debut at Gulfstream Park for $50,000. Yet all of them have shown promise.

Miss Imperial won her second career start at Churchill Downs last November for trainer Steve Asmussen and then was privately purchased by Michael Dubb, Sol Kumin, and partners. Since being turned over to Jason Servis, she has won a first-level optional claimer at Aqueduct and finished second in both the Ruthless and Cicada stakes in New York.

The Hystericalady will be Miss Imperial’s first start since mid-March. She figures to be prominent throughout under jockey Nik Juarez.

Royal Charlotte is 2 for 2 for Chad Brown. She came from just off the pace to win a maiden race by four lengths at Gulfstream Park in March and then won an optional-claiming race by a neck at Keeneland in April. The second- and third-place finishers from her maiden race came back to win their next starts. Bingwa, the runner-up at Keeneland, won a first-level allowance at Belmont Park by 3 1/4 lengths last Sunday.

Joe Bravo has the mount on Royal Charlotte, who will likely be favored.

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Trainer Anthony Margotta claimed Swap Meet out of a second-place finish in February. Shacklette, who beat her a half-length that day, won a $50,000 starter race in her next start.

In her lone race for Margotta, Swap Meet won a Tampa Bay Downs maiden sprint by 7 1/2 lengths under Jose Ferrer. The 83 Beyer Speed Figure she earned makes her a player in the Hystericalady.

Ferrer, the leading rider at Monmouth a year ago, keeps the mount. Coming into the weekend, Ferrer was atop the Monmouth standings with 10 wins.

Malocchio, a $190,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland September in 2017, will be making her first start since last October for John Servis. She won a Delaware Park maiden race last year before running second in the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth going a mile on turf. This will be her first race since she finished sixth of 14 in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland.

Past Perfect, who is 3 for 11 for trainer Kenneth Cox, including a first-level optional-claiming win at Laurel Park, and Questionoftheday, who won an allowance for Maryland-bred or -sired runners May 3 at Laurel, complete the field.