Monmouth-loving Informative upsets Highly Motivated in Iselin

We have enough information now – Informative excels at Monmouth Park.

Last summer he upset the Grade 3 Salvator Mile at Monmouth, his only win in 12 starts during 2021. Saturday, a month after a solid third-place finish in the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup, Informative won the Grade 3, $250,000 Philip H. Iselin Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths over odds-on favorite Highly Motivated, his first victory since the Salvator Mile.

“He loves Monmouth,” said trainer Uriah St. Lewis. “The Salvator Mile was a bigger surprise to me. This race, we knew what we were coming into and what kind of horse we had.”

Informative now has a 3-2-0-1 record at Monmouth and is 32-1-3-2 at all other racecourses.

St. Lewis pointed out that Informative carried just two pounds fewer, 118 to 120, when Highly Motivated beat him by four lengths in the Monmouth Cup. The spread Saturday was six pounds, 124 on Highly Motivated, 118 on Informative, but that alone didn’t account for the reversal of fortune. Jockey Dexter Haddock said that Informative had gotten bogged down on the inside in the Monmouth Cup and is a horse who prefers a clean outside trip.

With none of the six runners eager to lead, the first quarter went in a slow 24.07 seconds, Forza Di Oro leading, but only barely. Hector Diaz Jr. on Highly Motivated went four paths wide around the first turn, and Haddock decided to take the overland route, going five wide to keep the favorite squarely in his sites.

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The field went down the backstretch that way, passing the half mile in 47.47 and still five abreast into and partway around the far turn. Past the three-furlong marker, Sagamore Mischief steadied and dropped back quickly, and shortly thereafter Forza Di Oro threw in the towel. That left Highly Motivated narrowly leading Informative into the homestretch, and Informative gamely pushed past at the sixteenth pole to win going away.

Promise Keeper broke poorly and did well to get third, 1 3/4 lengths behind Highly Motivated. Then came Ridin With Biden, Sagamore Mischief, and Forza Di Oro.

Winning time for 1 1/16 miles on a fast track was 1:44.42. Informative, the second-longest win price, paid $30.80.

St. Lewis trains Informative, a 5-year-old horse by Bodemeister out of Lucky Black, by Hard Spun, for Trin-Brook Stables. Informative was bred in Kentucky by Rose Hill Farm and John Trumbulovic.

Informative got a 97 Beyer Speed Figure for the Iselin, equaling his career-best from the Salvator Mile. Good things happen for this horse at Monmouth Park.