Idiot Proof breaks six-furlong track record

Idiot Proof broke the track record in the Grade 3, $150,000 Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Stakes one race after Joe Bravo got his 4,000th win to highlight a festive July Fourth holiday card at Monmouth Park.

Bravo reached the milestone aboard Alotofappeal in the eighth race.

"I want to thank all the agents I had in the past, the trainers and the owners that helped me to 4,000," said Bravo, who had four wins on the card.

Idiot Proof ($10.60) was the equine star before a crowd of 15,791.

After an early duel with Southwestern Heat, Idiot Proof pulled clear approaching the eighth pole. From that point, it was strictly Idiot Proof against the clock, and the colt would not be denied.

Idiot Proof blazed the six furlongs in 1:07.47, erasing the mark of 1:07.84 set by Gilded Time as a juvenile in 1992.

Rajiv Maragh, a late substitute when David Flores did not make the trip from California, guided Idiot Proof to the 7 1/4-length win over Spin Master. Principle Secret was third followed by Southwestern Heat, Sir Five Star, Cherokee Country, and West Coast Flier.

The record performance in the stakes for 3-year-olds had trainer Clifford Sise Jr. thinking he'd like to come back and try this again - in the Breeders' Cup Sprint on Oct. 27.

"I was thinking about a 3-year-old Cal-bred stake at Del Mar, but I may have to change that now," Sise said.

It was the fourth win in five starts and first stakes victory for Idiot Proof, the Hollywood Park-based colt who signaled his affinity for this surface with a four-furlong bullet drill in 47 seconds here June 29.

"We knew he really liked this track, and he showed it this afternoon," Sise said.

The stakes win capped a big East Coast trip for Sise, whose son, Philadelphia Park-based trainer Robert Sise, was blessed with a second daughter on Tuesday.

* Bravo was aboard as Joey P. ($4.40) gamely held off Hey Chub by three-quarters of a length in the $60,000 Colts Neck Handicap for New Jersey-breds.