OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Francis “Tres” Abbott III took a gamble with Medea in the Grade 3, $103,000 Eatontown Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf Saturday at Monmouth Park. The race looked like a bit of a stretch for a 5-year-old eligible for a second-level allowance. Abbott is not shy when it comes to grabbing for the graded-stakes ring. Medea rewarded the 31-year-old trainer based at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland with his second stakes win. Abbott and jockey Forest Boyce both got their initial graded victory when Nellie Cashman took last year’s Grade 3 Virginia Oaks. That upset returned $41.20. The Eatontown win price was a more modest $13.60 as the Abbott-Boyce team struck again. The Eatontown unfolded with Lonesome Town breaking on top and leading the pack out of the chute onto the main course. Nashly’s Vow, the 9-5 favorite, was not in a mood to rate. She charged to the front, passing the grandstand the first time, and sprinted clear by some five lengths. Medea and Boyce sat third while the action unfolded up front. Rounding the final turn, Lonesome Town and Medea both advanced on Nashly’s Vow. Medea prevailed in that three-way battle and held off the closers in the scramble to the wire. “It really set up perfect for us,” Boyce said. “I was pretty confident in the lane. I had plenty of horse at that point. She’s a pretty gritty filly.” Medea beat Triple Arch by one length, improving her record to 3 for 11. Abbott was confident, even though Medea came into the Eatontown off a fifth-place finish in a Pimlico allowance as the 1-2 favorite. “Her last run at Pimlico, she got a little worked up in the post parade,” Abbott said. “We kind of threw that one out. We thought this was a good opportunity to take a shot a stakes company.” It turned into a bullseye for the Irish-bred mare who started her career in England. The time was 1:41.89 for the 1 1/16 miles on the firm course. Lonesome Town was third, followed by Rusty Slipper, Dido, Nashly’s Vow, and Misty in Malibu. Orion Moon, the Eatontown morning-line favorite trained by Christophe Clement, was a precautionary veterinary scratch due to the potential equine herpes virus contamination of a barn at Belmont Park. The precautionary quarantine on that barn was lifted Saturday afternoon after tests for equine herpes virus came back negative. ** The trip to Japan was a long journey to finish last for Pants On Fire. “The whole trip to Japan was a bit of a fiasco,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “We’re just happy to have him back here and training.” Last year’s Grade 2 Monmouth Cup winner has not run since finishing the 2013 campaign with a 16th-place finish Dec. 1 in the Grade 1 Japan Cup Dirt Stakes. “There was nobody in the gate and reared up and hit his head,” Breen said. “We didn’t know the lay of the land. I’m not saying we wouldn’t do it again. You live and learn. Hopefully, I can learn from the experience. You go halfway around the world and you run dead last. It takes eight months to get him back to the races.” The 6-year-old is still several months away from making his season bow, according to Breen. He turned in his first work here last weekend, three furlongs in 35.80 seconds. Breen has not targeted a comeback. The Grade 3, $150,000 Iselin Stakes here Aug. 17 could be a return spot. Pants On Fire is a multiple graded winner. His victories include the 2011 Louisiana Derby and last year’s Grade 3 Ack Ack Handicap at Churchill Downs. Shifting gears to his promising 3-year-old, Breen is pointing Encryption to the $100,000 Long Branch Stakes here July 5. Encryption ran second to Albano in the Grade 3 Pegasus last weekend in only his third start and stakes debut. “I thought he ran a nice race in the Pegasus,” Breen said. “I thought the race set up for the winner, and the winner was more seasoned. I think our horse is just getting his feet under him, and he’s meant to be a nice horse.” A solid effort in the Long Branch would earn an invitation to the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell here July 27.