Fondly expected to track Running Away in Monmouth Oaks
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Fondly and Running Away made no impression whatsoever contesting Grade 1 races in Kentucky this spring, but Saturday in New Jersey the Monmouth Oaks could come down to those two 3-year-old fillies.
The Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Oaks at 1 1/16-miles drew seven entrants, four of whom were the first-call leader in at least one of their last two starts. That group includes Fondly, who raced wire to wire winning the Delaware Oaks in her most recent start, a sharp form reversal following an 11th-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.
“We asked a lot of her in Kentucky,” trainer Graham Motion said.
Fondly won her debut over seven furlongs at Tampa Bay Downs and returned to win the Virginia Oaks, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race at Colonial Downs. At Delaware Park last out, she controlled a very slow pace, bounding clear in upper stretch and dashing off to a three-length victory under Irad Ortiz Jr. that produced a career-best 83 Beyer Speed Figure and should make her favored Saturday. Drawn in post 7 with truer speed inside her, Fondly, with Samuel Marin named to ride, doesn’t project to make the lead this time.
“Irad was a big part of her winning so comfortably last time. He kind of had a plan and it all worked out. That being said, I do think she improved,” said Motion, who conceded Fondly got the best of things at Delaware, but believes she can race as effectively with a clean, stalking trip. “I think the draw probably helps her.”
Running Away ships from Keeneland for trainer Wesley Ward, who leaves tactics in the hands of Victor Espinoza. The strategy seems simple: Get to the front and see how far the filly takes you.
“Whenever she gets in front, she gets pretty brave,” Ward said.
Running Away made her first two starts on turf, then won a Churchill Downs dirt-route maiden and logged a front-running score Jan. 18 in the Busanda at Aqueduct. Her next race came in the Grade 1 Ashland in April at Keeneland, where Running Away broke flat-footed, got stuck wide and off the pace on the first turn, and stopped badly before the three-furlong marker. In her most recent start, she scored a front-running victory in a $150,000 off-turf stakes at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
Running Away’s recent works at Keeneland haven’t just yielded fast times, in the drills available on video she travels smoothly and easily, and doesn’t look like she’s going fast.
“She’s a really good work horse, and she’s always been a really, really good work horse,” Ward said. “She’s fresh now, and we were looking for a spot to get a graded win, or at least a placing.”
Pink Ruby, who raced on a fast pace in the one-turn-mile Wilton last out at Aqueduct, and who wired a Monmouth first-level dirt-route allowance in her previous start, looks like Running Away’s principal pace rival.
Paris Lily finished a fading fourth in the Delaware Oaks but lost ground on both turns during a generally unfavorable trip.
Ruth and Naked Eye finished first and third, respectively, in an age-restricted first-level allowance July 6 at Monmouth. That pair and three others will struggle to contend with the fillies who got Grade 1 experience in April and May.
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