Florida pair meet at Monmouth

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Sandi's Ready and Exe, both of whom campaigned at Gulfstream over the winter, meet Sunday in the $65,000 Little Silver Stakes on the turf at Monmouth Park.

Sandi's Ready has settled in nicely on the grass and makes her stakes debut in this spot for 3-year-old fillies going one mile. She ran here five times last summer on dirt, never finishing better than third.

"She was just so immature," trainer Cam Gambolati said. "She was just trying to get out all the time. I couldn't figure her out."

Then Gambolati had the "Eureka!" moment.

"A More Than Ready on the grass," Gambolati said. "That's all it was. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out."

Sandi's Ready blossomed over the winter at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida.

"They let you work three times a week on the turf," Gambolati said. "She just loved it. That was the difference."

The results started to show on the racetrack. Sandi's Ready ran three times on the grass at Gulfstream Park, with a pair of wins and a close second.

"She's run against some pretty good fillies, and she's run right there with them," Gambolati said. "She seems to be doing really well."

The addition of an extension blinker also helped.

"For some reason, something on the inside here was getting her," Gambolati said. "She gallops like that still. I breezed her twice here with the extension blinker and she didn't get out at all. It's just a mental thing."

Exe could return to dirt, even though she captured a Florida-bred stakes on the turf at Calder in November.

"It looked like her game might have moved up on the turf," trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said. "We have it in our minds to try her on the dirt [again] fairly soon."

The Little Silver could determine how soon that main-track effort arrives.

Expect Exe to be closer to the pace in this spot. In her most recent efforts, overnight stakes at Gulfstream Park, Exe dropped back early and never recovered.

Chuckie Lopez, one of the top speed riders at the track, will be aboard Sunday.

"She has shown speed in the past," Plesa said. "I think she will be laying closer in this race than in her past couple of races."

Frisk Me Now: Several find easier company

Several horses outrun in graded stakes look to regroup Sunday in the $70,000 Frisk Me Now Stakes at 1 1/16 miles.

Understatement undertook the most ambitious assignment last time, leaping from a second-level inner-track allowance victory to the Grade 1 Carter Handicap, both at Aqueduct.

He has been rested since finishing seventh in the Carter on April 4. In addition to Understatement, trainer Todd Pletcher also sends out Nite Light, a maiden winner here in 2007 who has not competed since running fifth last June in the Grade 2 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park.

The Pletcher horses run uncoupled.

Brave Tin Soldier last ran fifth in the Grade 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai in March.

Formal King is the sharpest horse in the race. He was a dominant second-level allowance winner last time in the slop at Aqueduct while earning a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure for trainer Rick Dutrow.