Monmouth: Food trucks and stakes

Monmouth Park has stakes Saturday, Sunday, and Monday this holiday weekend. It is also Jersey Shore Food Truck Festival weekend at the track.

The trucks, which will be at Monmouth all three days, bring great food, big crowds, and long lines. The best handicapping tip of the weekend may be to eat as soon as you get to the track because last year the lines got longer as the day went on.

The weekend stakes are the John J. Reilly on Saturday and the Open Mind on Monday, a pair of six-furlong handicaps for New Jersey-breds, and the $75,000 Miss Liberty Stakes on Sunday. The Miss Liberty is a one-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares.

◗ Penn National will run its first stakes of the season Saturday night. The $100,000 Lyphard is a 1 1/16-mile turf race for Pennsylvania-bred fillies and mares.