Monmouth Park: Carroll giving Trish's Wish a try on turf in Colleen Stakes

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trish’s Wish is a family affair through and through for owner-breeder-trainer Henry Carroll.

Trish’s Wish is one of 11 2-year-old fillies entered in the $60,000 Colleen Stakes, a five-furlong turf sprint on Sunday at Monmouth Park.

Carroll is perhaps best known as the developer of Smoke Glacken, the winner of Monmouth’s Tyro and Sapling Stakes in 1996, the Eclipse Award-winning sprinter the following year, and the sire of Trish’s Wish.

Carroll also trained the dam, the lightly raced Naught Naught.

“I feel like an old man, training the mother and the father,” said Carrol, 64. “Smoke Glacken was so good to me and he continues to give as a real solid stallion.”

To complete the family connection, Trish’s Way is named for Patricia, Carroll’s wife and chief lieutenant around the barn.

Like her daddy, Trish’s Wish is a gray. And it looks like she can run.

Trish’s Wish cruised to a five-length win on dirt here in her lone start on June 16 with Victor Santiago aboard.

“From day one, she was easy to break,” Carroll said. “She’s done everything right and she’s got a great mind. She wasn’t even fully cranked when I ran her. I don’t know what she beat, but the kid never hit her. She’s a sound filly and I think she’s got a little future.”

As for the surface switch, Carroll is encouraged that some of Naught Naught’s offspring have won on the turf. Another factor is the calendar. He hopes to point Trish’s Wish to the $100,000 Sorority – a six-furlong main-track stakes on Sept. 2 – and this was the next available spot at her home track.

“Now is as good a time as any to find out if the grass will help her,” Carroll said. “This will answer a lot of questions. I worked her on the turf the other day, and what she did around the dogs was perfect for me.”

The field also includes several turf winners, including A Lover’s Question, fresh from a victory in a Virginia-bred stakes at Colonial Downs.

As usual in a Monmouth turf stakes, trainer Christophe Clement will be represented. He will ship in Funfair, a drawing-off winner in her debut at Belmont Park which produced a 70 Beyer Speed Figure, the best in the field.

Jane’s Heir and Go Kitten Go are the other grass winners.