Monte Crista sharp for Marshua's River – if she can run

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s been a long time since anybody turned in a workout over the Gulfstream Park turf course as flashy or as impressive as Monte Crista did here Sunday when breezing four furlongs in 45.03 in preparation, hopefully, for a start in Saturday’s Grade 3 Marshua’s River here.

Hopefully is the key word, as Monte Crista’s trainer, Mike Trombetta, explained on Monday.

Monte Crista has missed two intended starts. Trombetta shipped Monte Crista to Woodbine to run Nov. 25 in the Bessarabian Stakes, but he had to scratch her with a sore foot. He intended to run her here in the Tropical Park Oaks on Dec. 29.

“So I brought her back to Fair Hill, worked her a couple of times . . . only to discover I couldn’t run because they had put her on the vet’s list at Woodbine, which nobody up there ever bothered to inform me,” he said.

Trombetta followed the necessary protocol at that point, working Monte Crista for the Gulfstream Park veterinarian five furlongs in 59.40 seconds on Dec. 30. But the story doesn’t quite end there.

“She surprised the daylights out of me with that work because she’s not a dirt horse in any way,” said Trombetta. “Unfortunately they have to send out a blood sample after a vet work and we’re still waiting on the results. I’m going to enter her for the stakes on Saturday, but if the blood doesn’t come back on time, we’re going to miss out again. What bothers me is that if I had been notified by Woodbine she was on the vet’s list, I had plenty of opportunities to work her for the vet down here well before I finally did, and we wouldn’t have this issue now. Thank goodness I’m fortunate enough to have an owner who is very understanding.”

Monte Crista is owned by Country Life Farm.

If she does get to compete in the Marshua’s River, Monte Crista figures to be one of the horses to beat. The daughter of Cape Blanco won four of her first five starts on turf, including the one-mile Riskaverse Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths last summer at Saratoga. Her only poor effort on grass came in her 2018 finale when she finished far back over soft ground in the Pebbles at Belmont Park.

“She didn’t want any part of the soft going last time, but she’s really training exceptionally good right now,” said Trombetta. “If this thing blows up again Saturday because of the lab results being delayed, we can bring her back in the South Beach in a couple of weeks, but I’d really like to take a crack at a graded stakes.”

The 1 1/16-mile Marshua’s River will share top billing on Saturday’s program with the Grade 3 Tropical Turf, a one-mile race that is expected to feature the 2019 debut of Heart to Heart in his first local appearance since capturing the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf here last February.

◗ Thursday’s feature race goes as the finale on the 10-race program and will be decided at a mile on the turf under optional claiming conditions. The race is restricted to Florida-breds and lured a field of nine plus a couple of also-eligibles led by the undefeated Souper Scat Daddy for trainer Mark Casse as well as Expected Ruler, who’ll take the blinkers off for his 2019 debut. Famous Fact, Blue Lute, and My Point Exactly are other contenders of note.