Munnys Gold puts up 101 Beyer in juvenile debut
Trainer Todd Pletcher got a graded stakes win and unleashed two stakes-bound first-time starters over the course of the Friday and Saturday cards at Monmouth Park.
On Friday, Pletcher sent out 2-year-old filly Munnys Gold to make her career debut in a five-furlong maiden race and looked on from his base in New York as the filly went to the lead and drew away to a 14 1/2-length win. The filly recorded a raw time of 56.60 seconds, which produced a 101 Beyer Speed Figure. That’s the highest 2-year-old Beyer so far this year by 18 points and a remarkably robust number for a June juvenile. Only one 2-year-old each of the last two years recorded a triple-digit Beyer. Both were colts, and both did so in early autumn, Jack Christopher getting a 102 last year, Jackie’s Warrior a 100 in 2020.
Since 2000, only 26 2-year-old fillies have gotten a Beyer of 101 or higher, and nearly all came before 2010. The 101 was the highest 2-year-old filly Beyer since Jamyson ’n Ginger got a 103 in October 2016 and is the highest June Beyer earned by a 2-year-old filly this century.
Pletcher said Munnys Gold, a Munnings filly owned by Robert and Lawana Low, had come into his barn at Palm Beach Downs in Florida from the training center run by Pletcher’s father, J.J. Pletcher. Pletcher shipped her north to his New Jersey string rather than to New York in part because he thought it might be easier to find a maiden race for her at Monmouth than at Belmont Park, and because the exercise rider who’d been getting on the filly in Florida was bound for Monmouth.
“She can be a bit headstrong, and it seemed like a good idea to keep them united since they got along well,” he said.
It was clear Munnys Gold had speed, and Pletcher said all her works had at least been solid.
“We knew she had a good chance, but it’s impossible to predict she’d do what she did,” he said.
Likely up next for Munnys Gold is the Schuylerville Stakes over six furlongs on July 14 at Saratoga. Pletcher said the filly would remain at Monmouth Park for now but would ship to Saratoga well in advance of her intended spot.
The 2-year-old colt Major Dude, the fifth winner for first-crop sire Bolt d’Oro, ran three seconds slower in winning his career debut Saturday than Munnys Gold had the day before. Major Dude’s Beyer came back at just 59. But Major Dude gamely split horses in upper stretch after racing behind rivals and won by almost four lengths with his ears pricked.
“It looked like there was more there if needed,” said Pletcher, who will point Major Dude to the Sanford Stakes on July 16 at Saratoga.
Later Saturday, in the $150,000 Salvator Mile, the Pletcher-trained Mind Control led early, briefly lost his lead in midstretch to odds-on favorite Hot Rod Charlie, but came right back along the rail to post a narrow win over one of the leading 4-year-olds of 2022. Mind Control got a 104 Beyer, equaling his career best, and is a candidate for the $400,000 Monmouth Cup over 1 1/8 miles on July 23.
Six-year-old Mind Control has raced around two turns only three times in his career, the first of those starts a dud in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Mind Control’s other 104 Beyer came in his second two-turn start, the $200,000 Parx Dirt Mile last fall, and the horse was intended for the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile before he got sick after shipping to Del Mar late last October.
“I don’t think there’s any question two turns suits him well, and I get the impression he can go a little farther,” Pletcher said.