Miss Liberty stocked with class

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The $70,000 Miss Liberty on Friday at Monmouth Park came up very strong for an overnight stakes.

The Miss Liberty, along with the $75,000 Mr. Prospector Stakes for sprinters, tops the 10-race card that kicks off Independence Day weekend on the Jersey Shore.

The Miss Liberty, for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the turf, attracted a full field of 11, with two more sitting on the also-eligible list and another pair entered for the main track only. While strong in numbers, the race also stacks up on class, featuring six runners who competed in graded stakes last time out.

Two of them, All Is Vanity and Quiet Meadow, squared off here last month in the Grade 3 Eatontown Handicap, with All Is Vanity prevailing by a neck with a strong outside run.

It was a second straight excellent effort by the 5-year-old All Is Vanity, who had missed by a head in her previous race, the Grade 3 Gallorette Handicap at Pimlico. All Is Vanity, trained by Christophe Clement, earned identical Beyer Speed Figures of 95 in both races, a level of consistency that will make her tough here.

Joe Bravo has the return call.

Clement also entered Rosa Grace. They race uncoupled.

The Eatontown also featured a strong performance by Quiet Meadow in her graded stakes debut. The 4-year-old Quiet Meadow, trained by Chad Brown came to New Jersey off two straight wins in Florida.

"We were real pleased," Brown said of Quiet Meadow's race in the Eatontown. "She just continues to get better week to week."

In scoping out her next race, Brown found few grass spots for fillies and mares going long, helping explain why this race turned out as solidly as it did.

"There was nothing out there," Brown said. "It was very limited this month. There will be more options next month. I think everyone is in the same spot. The filly who beat me in the graded stakes is in here, too. That shows there is not much around."

Of the graded runners in the field, Captain's Lover takes the biggest drop, having run fifth last time in the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes at Belmont Park in her U.S. debut.

She is 6 for 10, having won a Group 1 stakes in her native South Africa and a Group 3 stakes last September at Longchamp.