Little Ni a Jersey Shore standout if Book'em Danno takes a pass

Monmouth Park-based trainer Eddie Owens thought enough of a New Jersey-bred 2-year-old named Sea Streak that he debuted the horse last summer in the $130,000 Smoke Glacken Stakes. Sea Streak validated Owens’s high opinion, turning in a runner-up performance good enough to win the Smoke Glacken most years, and Sea Steak has turned out good enough that he’s scheduled to race Saturday in the $1 million Haskell Stakes.

Sea Streak, despite his suitability to the race, lost the Smoke Glacken by two lengths, beaten by another New Jersey-bred, Book’em Danno. Now, Owens has a 3-year-old gelding named Little Ni entered in Friday’s $100,000 Jersey Shore Stakes. Three races – one at age 2, two this year – and Little Ni has not come close to being tested. But standing between Little Ni and Jersey Shore heroism is none other than Book’em Danno, one of five other 3-year-olds entered in the six-furlong Jersey Shore.

Book’em Danno would be an odds-on favorite Friday at Monmouth, but his participation at press time Wednesday remained uncertain. Derek Ryan, who trains Book’em Danno for Atlantic Six Racing, said he might wait until Thursday before deciding whether Book’em Danno starts Friday or sits out the Jersey Shore.

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No doubt Book’em Danno is overqualified for an ungraded $100,000 race. By the rising New York-based stallion Bucchero, he went on from his Smoke Glacken victory to win the Futurity at Aqueduct and finish second there in the Nashua. His January romp in the Pasco Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs served as a prep for the $1.5 million Saudi Derby, in which Book’em Danno took an excruciating loss, beaten a head by Forever Young, who in May nearly won the Kentucky Derby.

The Saudi trip did nothing to interrupt Book’em Danno’s development. In his first start after the trip, he won the Grade 1 Woody Stephens last month at Saratoga.

Book’em Danno’s next major goal is the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens next month at Saratoga, and in advance of that start he could race in the Troy Stakes over the Saratoga grass course or the Amsterdam, the main-track Jerkens prep at Saratoga. It’s only because Book’em Danno’s owners are from the Jersey Shore, the fact the gelding could run out of his own stall, and the decent timing of Friday’s contest vis-à-vis the Jerkens that Book’em Danno even has been entered.

Little Ni can’t beat an in-form Book’em Danno, but he can handle the other four: Jasper’s Pride, Proprietary Trade, Buccherino, and Let’s Go Mark.

By Mohaymen, Little Ni debuted last October, cruising to a Delaware Park maiden sprint win, and after a winter and early spring break, he’s blasted older horses in first- and second-level Monmouth sprint allowance races this meet. He’s well drawn on the outside under Jairo Rendon, but Owens, undoubtedly, would not relish running into Book’em Danno a second time.

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