McSorley ends with pair of dead heats

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Finishes can't get much tighter than the one in the $60,000 Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Shades of Sunny ($22.20) and Quest of Fate ($7.60) dead-heated for the win. Only a neck further back, Tricky Storm and Scattering Breezes dead heated for third in the five-furlongs turf stakes run over a firm course.

The proverbial blanket could have covered the entire field at the end as all nine were still in the hunt in the final sixteenth of a mile.

Shades of Sunny, ridden by Stewart Elliott, won his 10th career race. Quest of Fate, with Joe Bravo aboard, scored his eighth win.

"I thought I had it by a nose," said Elliott. "Leaving the gate, he just settled in third and we were in a good spot. At the top of the stretch I asked him for run and he really took off."

Bravo wasn't as confident, as his horse rallied from seventh.

"Turning for home, I didn't think I'd get the money but he just kept coming and coming," said Bravo. "I knew it was close. I wasn't sure if I got there or not."

The joint winners stopped the clock in 55.69 seconds.