Monmouth Park: Rainbow Heir puts perfect record on the line in Jersey Shore

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Monmouth Park celebrates Independence Day with a special holiday card topped by the Grade 3, $100,000 Jersey Shore Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters.

The six-furlong race drew a field of seven, including the unbeaten Rainbow Heir. The New Jersey-bred chestnut colt is 3 for 3 heading into his stakes debut.

Rainbow Heir has already proven he can beat open company, posting two wins this year at Laurel. He whipped older statebreds on Monmouth’s opening weekend, ringing up a snappy 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Now he faces a challenge on his home track for trainer Ben Perkins Jr.

Rainbow Heir did not race as a 2-year-old. Perkins took a cautious approach with the New Farm homebred son of Wildcat Heir, letting him mature and develop. Thursday’s race will be a test of how well that patience has paid off.

“He’s always trained really well, even as a 2-year-old,” Perkins said. “Now it’s time to see if he can step up.”

Perkins believes the race earlier in the meet gave Rainbow Heir a needed foundation for this spot.

“It was early in the year for 3-year-olds to beat older horses like that,” Perkins said. “It was exactly what we were looking for. We had thought about a Preakness Day undercard race, but he was kind of green in his last race. We thought one more race before shipping would really help him. All along, we were thinking about this race.”

Jockey Elvis Trujillo has the return call.

While the 96 Beyer by Rainbow Heir last time out was a sharp number, it doesn’t come close to the highest mark in the field. That honor belongs to Uptown Boy, who posted a 105 Beyer last month while blitzing statebreds by seven lengths in the E Dubai HBPA Stakes at Penn National.

The consistent gelding is 4-3-1 in 10 starts.

Matthew Rispoli will again be aboard for trainer Bernard Houghton.

While Rainbow Heir owns an unblemished record, Whiskey Romeo is close to perfection. The colt, trained by Tony Dutrow, is 4 for 5, the lone defeat coming in the Fred “Cappy” Capossela Stakes at Aqueduct in March. He bounced back from the loss with a pacesetting win in an overnight stakes at Belmont Park.

Joe Bravo rides Whiskey Romeo for the first time.

Two T’s At Two B, English Manor, Res Judicata, and Amarish complete the field. First post is 12:50 p.m.