Follow Me Home supreme in filly sprints

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Follow Me Home continued her dominance of the local 3-year-old filly sprinters with a victory in Saturday's $50,000 Trenton Stakes at Monmouth Park.

Follow Me Home is unbeaten in four starts at the meet, the last three stakes races.

Follow Me Home ($4.40) beat the late-running Randaroo by 1 3/4 lengths in 58.13 seconds. Nicole's Dream was third.

The Trenton, slated for five furlongs on the turf but shifted to the muddy main track, posed Follow Me Home's biggest challenge to date.

Although the field dwindled to six runners with the surface shift, the quality remained high.

Randaroo had contested Grade 1 stakes at Belmont Park in her last two outings, while Nicole's Dream had stakes experience in Chicago.

They were no match for Follow Me Home on her home track.

"I feel as though she's getting better every week," trainer Robert Levine said. "She's putting weight on and she's getting bigger and better."

Lilias Trotter set the pace with Follow Me Home and Nicole's Dream running as a team in a stalking position two lengths behind.

Follow Me Home, with Julian Pimentel aboard, angled off the rail turning for home and prevailed while drifting out in deep stretch.

Levine, while enjoying the win and a box of fancy cigars from a local sponsor, had one regret: He still wants to get Follow Me Home on the turf. This was second Monmouth stakes she won that had been scheduled for the grass.

"I'd still like to get her a turf race to see if she can handle it," Levine said.