Honest to Betsy dropping into Prom

Consider Friday's racing at the Meadowlands a warm-up for the stakes action to come in New Jersey. One week before the Breeders' Cup gets under way next Friday at Monmouth Park, the Meadowlands has a good nine-race card of its own, highlighted by a pair of $60,000 stakes races.

First up is the Prom Stakes, a six-furlong dash for 2-year-old fillies that drew graded stakes dropper Honest to Betsy. That race is followed by the Cozzene Stakes, a turf race at a mile and 70 yards that features the likes of Cliff Hanger winner Presious Passion and Fort Marcy Handicap winner Woodlander.

The Prom, the seventh race, drew a field of only six, but it is a competitive contest. Honest to Betsy, fourth in the Grade 2 Adirondack and fifth in the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Lassie in her two most recent starts, is the most battle-tested of the group, but four others enter the race in top form.

Sumptuous, Rojo's Tune, and D J Lightning come off maiden victories, and How Bout Tonight finished second in a Delaware Park allowance Sept. 26 after a dominant maiden score at Monmouth.

Cornelio Velasquez will ride Honest to Betsy for trainer Dale Romans and owner Blue Devil Racing Stable.

Presious Passion, upset the Grade 3 Cliff Hanger at 10-1 odds, and will seek to prove that victory was not a fluke in the Cozzene.

The opposition is headed by Woodlander, who ran fourth in the Grade 2 Kelso at Belmont Sept. 29, and Kiss the Kid, who finished fourth in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Belmont Sept. 30. Other prominent entries include stakes winners Rock Lobster, Pass Play, and Jungle Fighter.