Get Serious field likely to get shaken up before post time

Two days out and who knows what the $100,000 Get Serious will look like when the horses load into the starting gate Sunday afternoon at Monmouth Park.

The prospect of weekend rain means turf racing might not be conducted at all Sunday. Two horses among the nine in the main body of the Get Serious, a five-furlong turf dash, are cross-entered elsewhere – Smooth B in the Page McKenney for Pennsylvania-breds on Sunday at Parx Racing, Sunny Breeze in the $100,000 Alapocas Road on Saturday at Delaware Park. Those are dirt stakes, suggesting connections aren’t necessarily looking for turf.

Two more in the main body of the Get Serious, Super Chow and Downtownchalybrown, have never started on grass; the race could come up tougher on the main track than on turf. River Dog and Spikezone, both entered for the main track only, bring contending form themselves.

Bel Pensiero, a New Jersey-bred mare, won a Monmouth grass sprint allowance two races ago and, carrying 113 pounds, gets as much as 11 pounds from her rivals. That’s still not enough weight for her to reach contention, though she rates a stronger chance than Vinsanity, who ran – uncompetitively – a mere week ago in the Grade 1 Jaipur.

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Super Chow just started May 26, running a below-form fourth in the Mr. Prospector at Monmouth, his first start since a ninth-place finish April 5 in the Dubai Golden Shaheen. Super Chow is by Lord Nelson, whose progeny win turf sprints at a low 8 percent rate.

Depending on who actually starts, 8-year-old Boat’s a Rockin could slip loose on the lead in his first start since November. Boat’s a Rockin can prove stubborn when he controls the pace and finished a decent fourth last August in the $100,000 Parx Dash.

The Get Serious, though, runs through the barn of trainer Joe Orseno, who sends out the two horses most likely to win, Horsepower and Mattingly.

Four-year-old Horsepower has been at least mildly competitive in eight of his nine turf races, the lone exception his 2024 finale over the tricky Keeneland course. A horse who liked to lead and press last year, Horsepower has developed a stalking style that appears to have elevated his game. He exits a seventh with a mildly troubled trip in the Elusive Quality over six furlongs at Aqueduct, won wire to wire by My Boy Prince, who returned to finish second in the Jaipur. Horsepower’s stumble at the start was minor, and once he shook free from traffic in upper stretch he didn’t quicken much.

Mattingly will race nearer the lead than Horsepower and can be excused his sixth-place finish last month in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico, where the course was listed as good but seemed softer than that. Mattingly never picked up on that ground, though the prospect of a wet Monmouth course could dampen his chances.

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