Monmouth: Iselin purse rises $50K

Very little has changed since last year on the Monmouth Park stakes schedule. Aside from the shift of one turf stakes from late August to the season's first stakes and a $50,000 purse boost to one of the track's 10 Grade 3 events, the 2007 schedule closely resembles the 2006 stakes package.

The $4.4 million stakes schedule released Thursday does not include any of the races that will be run during the special four-day Breeders' Cup mini-meet in late October or any overnight stakes.

The Grade 3 Eatontown for fillies and mares was moved from Aug. 26 to June 24. The race had to be pushed back last season because Monmouth's new turf course wasn't ready early in the meet.

The Grade 3 Phillip Iselin Breeders' Cup, scheduled for Aug. 19, will now be worth $300,000, a $50,000 increase, joining the Grade 2 Molly Pitcher as the third most lucrative of the track's 13 graded stakes.

As usual, the meet highlights will be a pair of Grade 1 races, the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 5 and the $750,000 United Nations on July 7.