Monmouth: Tap It Easy tries two turns, turf in allowance co-feature

OCEANPORT, N.J. – There are several intriguing 3-year-old fillies in the co-featured $42,000 first-level allowances on Friday at Monmouth Park.

First up comes the 1 1/16-mile race on the turf, where Tap It Easy makes her first start for trainer Ben Perkins Jr.

One race later, the action shifts to the main track at one mile, 70 yards as Lucky Rag Doll, a blowout maiden winner, stretches out for the Pat McBurney barn.

Tap It Easy started twice in Florida earlier this year for trainer Chad Brown, both times on dirt against statebreds at seven furlongs.

After a rallying victory in her debut at Gulfstream Park, Tap it Easy was fifth in the Sophomore Fillies Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

After the Florida campaign, Tap It Easy was farm freshened before reporting to Perkins’s barn at Monmouth.

This will be her first try going long while testing an unfamiliar surface.

“Turf races don’t seem to take as much out of them,” Perkins said. “For the first one back, this seemed like a little better experience for her. She seems okay. We had her mother and she has a lot of family resemblance. Like her, she’s a big chestnut.”

Victory Pool, Tap It Easy’s dam, was a seven-time winner before her retirement in 2008. She ran third to Grade 1 winner Sugar Shake in her lone graded appearance, the 2007 Grade 3 Turnback the Alarm Handicap at Aqueduct.

Victor Santiago will ride.

Todd Pletcher sends out the uncoupled duo of Bow Bells and Marcellina d’Oro.

Bow Bells looks to regroup after a disastrous Monmouth debut on the main track in late June. She stumbled at the break as the 8-5 favorite and never got into the hunt. This will be her first grass start.

Marcellina d’Oro has run twice on grass, picking up thirds here and at Aqueduct.

Corporate Culture, second in a similar spot most recently at Belmont Park, and Sense to Compete are the other promising 3-year-olds in the turf lineup.

On the dirt side, Lucky Rag Doll dominated last time out, winning by 6 1/4 lengths as the 2-5 favorite.

She makes only her fourth start and steps up to face more seasoned company, including the class-dropping Giant Cats Eye, whose last three races have been stakes.

This will be Giant Cats Eye’s Monmouth debut following a barn change to the meet’s leading trainer, Eddie Plesa Jr.