Oceanport, Matchmaker offer strong turf fields

OCEANPORT, N.J. – The Grade 3 Oceanport and Grade 3 Matchmaker, two of five undercard stakes on Haskell Invitational Day at Monmouth Park, have drawn competitive fields.

The Oceanport and Matchmaker are both $100,000 turf races. The Oceanport, for 3-year-olds and up, is at 1 1/16 miles and the Matchmaker, for fillies and mares, is a 1 1/8-mile race.

The Matchmaker is sponsored by WinStar Farm, which will offer the connections of the top three finishers a stallion season. The winner will get to pick among the WinStar stallions Exaggerator, who stood for $30,000 in 2018, Tourist ($12,500), and Commissioner ($7,500). The runner-up will get to pick from the remaining two studs, and the third-place finisher will receive the remaining season.

The Matchmaker, race 9, is the first leg of an all-stakes pick four with a $400,000 guaranteed pool. The other races are the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher, $75,000 Wolf Hill, and Grade 1 Haskell.

The top contenders in the Oceanport are Irish Strait, Synchrony, and Force the Pass.

Irish Strait, trained by Graham Motion, loves the Monmouth turf course. Last year, he won the Grade 3 Red Bank at Monmouth and finished second in the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes. He has a career record of 10-4-2-2 over the local turf.

A 6-year-old New Jersey-bred half-brother to Irish War Cry, Irish Strait has raced well in both his starts this season. He dropped a nose decision to Force the Pass in the Cliff Hanger here, then came back to score a half-length win over fellow Jersey-bred Golden Brown here in the Dan Horn Stakes.

Irish Strait won the Dan Horn easier than it looks on paper and Golden Brown has since come back to win the Grade 3 Kent at Delaware Park and is entered in Sunday’s Haskell.

Synchrony, who races for Mike Stidham, won the Grade 3 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds in March. In his two starts since, he has finished third to Yoshida in the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day and third to Divisidero in the Grade 3 Arlington Handicap.

Force the Pass defeated Irish Strait in the Cliff Hanger following a long layoff. He came back to be sixth to Oscar Performance in the Grade 3 Poker at Belmont Park.

The eight-horse Matchmaker has attracted the top four finishers from the Grade 3 Eatontown – Dream Awhile, Special Event, Elysea’s World, and Viva Vegas – plus Lift Up, a winner of five of her last six starts.

Dream Awhile, who is trained by Chad Brown, broke open the Eatontown with a sharp move to the lead in upper stretch, then held off Special Event to win by three-quarters of a length. Dream Awhile is the likely Matchmaker favorite but Special Event, who is conditioned by Shug McGaughey, has now strung together three nice races in a row.

Lift Up, who does her best running late for trainer Michael Dickinson, was entered in the Grade 3 Dr. Penny Memorial at Parx Racing on July 3, but that card was canceled due to extreme heat. The Matchmaker will be her first start since she scored her initial stakes win in the Miss Liberty at Monmouth on June 9.

An Augustin Stable homebred by Ghostzapper, Lift Up has steadily improved and appears ready for her graded debut.

Elysea’s World was a bit flat while finishing third in the Eatontown but could bounce back here at a fair price.

The Wolf Hill, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint that begins in the backstretch chute, is the fourth of five legs in the turf-sprint division of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships.

The field includes the top three division leaders – Oak Bluffs, 16 points, Pool Winner (12), and Imprimis (10), plus Dubini (9), who is in fifth.

Imprimis was impressive winning the Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico over soft turf in the division opener and then was sent to Woodbine by trainer Joe Orseno for the Grade 1, $250,000 Highlander on the Queen’s Plate undercard. Imprimis tried to come up the rail in upper stretch but was shut off and had to check at a pivotal point and finished sixth. He is the horse to beat Sunday.

Oak Bluffs steadied and lost position on the far turn of his last race, the Grade 3 Parx Dash.

Pool winner, the Parx Dash runner-up, also figures strongly in the Wolf Hill.