Kitten's Collusion gets meaningful weight break in Jersey Girl
Kitten’s Collusion gets an eight-pound weight break from her chief older rivals and should have plenty of early pace to set up her late run as she makes her stakes debut in the $85,000 Jersey Girl on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
The Jersey Girl, carded for one mile on turf, is restricted to New Jersey-bred fillies and mares 3-years-old and up. Three-year-olds like Kitten’s Collusion carry 115 pounds, while the top older mares in the Jersey Girl, Bramble Bay and I’m Listening, tote 123. That’s a meaningful gap, and Kitten’s Collusion is set to make her first turf start in New Jersey-bred competition.
Based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland with trainer Graham Motion, Kitten’s Collusion debuted last year at age 2 in a Monmouth Park turf race, and while she wound up a distant seventh, that start came in open competition. So were her next three races, one in 2021 and two this year, all of them solid, and when Motion sent the filly to Monmouth for a New Jersey-bred start June 12, a race carded for turf was rained onto the main track.
Kitten’s Collusion, bred and owned by Isabelle de Tomaso, is no dirt horse and her fifth-place finish last month should be viewed accordingly. The filly should sit near the back of this eight-horse field and come with a very competitive rally.
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Bramble Bay was beaten a head in the 2021 Jersey Girl, which was rained onto a wet dirt track, and could be favored under leading rider Paco Lopez. Two recent losses can be forgiven to some extent since they came in dirt races, but at her peak last summer, Bramble Bay ran better on dirt than she did this spring and summer. The mare prefers being placed near the lead, and Lopez must avoid getting sucked into a mid-race pace scrum with Roselba and No Sympathy.
I’m Listening has a New Jersey-bred main-track stakes win already this meet but has proven to be better on dirt than turf. There is a chance of rain Saturday at Monmouth, and her stock goes up if the Jersey Girl comes off the grass.
◗ Isaac Castillo, second-leading rider at Monmouth, will be out of action until sometime later this month after suffering a cervical injury when he went down in the ninth race last Sunday at Monmouth.
Castillo’s mount, Insatiable, through no other rider’s fault, appeared to clip heels approaching the far turn in a turf sprint. Castillo walked back to the jockeys’ quarters but later was diagnosed with an injury that will keep him out of action for two or three weeks, according to a Monmouth press release. Castillo won six races on the Monmouth card last Saturday.