Monmouth Park notes: Get Serious finds new verve

OCEANPORT, N.J. – A rejuvenated Get Serious is on target for the Grade 3 Oceanport Stakes on the Haskell Day undercard at Monmouth Park.

An 8-year-old gelding trained by the team of John Forbes and Pat McBurney, Get Serious turned back the clock on July 4 to capture the Grade 3 Red Bank.

Showing the old fight and resolve that made him one of the track’s most popular turf runners, Get Serious scored his first win since the 2010 Red Bank.

“He came out of the race fantastic,” McBurney said. “The Oceanport is the next logical step. It looks like he’s back to his form of two years ago.”

He now has three victories in the Red Bank, a feat he will attempt to duplicate in the Oceanport.

He captured the rained off 2009 renewal in the slop, beating Kiss The Kid by a neck in a three-horse contest. Get Serious prevailed in the Oceanport the following year by that same margin on the turf.

He went winless in 2011, compromised by a leg infection and some soft turf courses that hampered his front-running style.

Haskell names 29

The Monmouth race office extended Haskell invitations to 29 runners for $1 million race on July 29 with Bodemeister and Dullahan the expected headliners.

Bodemeister captured the Arkansas Derby before picking up a pair of seconds in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness after setting the pace in both races.

He is trained by Bob Baffert, winner of a record five Haskells, including the last two with editions with Lookin At Lucky (2010) and Coil last year.

Dullahan, the Blue Grass winner, was third in the Kentucky Derby.

Currency Swap headed to the Spa

Trainer Terri Pompay was never tempted to run Currency Swap in this weekend’s Grade 3 Jersey Shore even though the race was at his home track, and the colt would have been the odds-on choice against a weak field.

“Not at all,” Pompay said. “My owners told me they did not want to run here. There was no tempting. They spend their summers in Saratoga. They spend millions of dollars on horses. That’s where they want to showcase their good horse.”

Klaravich Stable and W.H. Lawrence want Currency Swap back at the track where he captured the Grade 1 Hopeful last September.

Currency Swap’s Saratoga targets this year are the Grade 2 Amsterdam on July 29 followed by the Grade 1 King’s Bishop on Aug. 25. Currency Swap was an excellent second to Trinniberg in his latest effort, the Grade 2 Woody Stephens at Belmont.

Zero Rate Policy, fourth in last year’s Jersey Shore, is still working his way back to the races. He fell on opening day of the meet in the Decathlon Stakes, triggering a multi-horse pileup.

He escaped serious injury and was entered in the Mr. Prospector until Pompay decided the 4-year-old needed more time.