Owens giving Riding Pretty chance against open company in Colleen

OCEANPORT, N.J. – From Monmouth Park to Saratoga, it’s a been a good summer for Holly Crest Farm New Jersey-bred 2-year-olds trained at Monmouth by Eddie Owens Jr.

Great Navigator won an open maiden special weight here in June and on July 16 finished a strong second in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. Sunday, the 2-year-old filly Riding Pretty, a debut winner over New Jersey-breds here June 24, goes from dirt to turf and is set to face open company in the $100,000 Colleen Stakes, a five-furlong grass sprint.

“She won first out on the dirt, but if you watch the race, she was working pretty hard, and I think she’ll be better on turf,” said Owens, a longtime assistant for trainers Joe Orseno and the late John Mazza who has been a head trainer since 2019.

Owens runs a small string out of a quiet corner of Barn 3 on the Monmouth backstretch, his stable populated by homebreds owned by Vincent Annarella’s Holly Crest Farm. His 2022 Monmouth meet record is a strong 19-5-4-5 and Owens’s trio of 2-year-old starters have gone 5-2-1-2. Great Navigator clearly is the most talented of them, improving his Beyer Speed Figure from 70 in his debut to 78 in the Sanford, where he was stuck behind a tiring rival in upper stretch before moving outside and finishing with interest to nab second.

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Great Navigator is by Sea Wizard, a first-crop sire standing locally whose two runners so far both reside in the Owens barn. Great Navigator came out of the Sanford in good shape and has resumed steady training with connections eyeing a start in the one-mile Sapling Stakes on Aug. 27, Owens said.

Riding Pretty is by Jack Milton, a turf horse in his racing days, and her two siblings to race preferred turf to dirt. Riding Pretty drew the rail, which didn’t make Owens happy, and the filly clearly faces stronger competition than she beat in her debut.

Drawn directly outside her in the field of eight is last-minute Colleen entry Margaret Burbidge, whom trainer Wesley Ward put into the Colleen after a Saratoga turf-sprint maiden race Thursday was rained onto dirt. Ward over the last five years has debuted two 2-year-olds in turf-sprint stakes. Four Wheel Drive, who would go on to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, won the $100,000 Rosies Stakes at Colonial Downs in 2019, and last summer at Monmouth Her World beat males in the Tyro Stakes.

“She’s very talented. She can really run, but as far as those other two, she might not have that quality,” Ward said. “She’s fast because of me, but she’s probably meant to go farther.”

Only one Colleen entrant, last-start Belmont Park maiden winner Kerry, has raced on grass, though Margaret Burbidge has been working on turf at Saratoga. Sansa Ariel, who won her career debut June 1 at Delaware Park with a 70 Beyer is uncertain to run and could opt instead for a Wednesday race at Parx Racing, trainer Cal Lynch said Friday.

Sweet Harmony, a Monmouth debut dirt winner for trainer John Terranova, could take to turf. She’s by Bayern, who has a solid 16 percent strike rate with turf sprinters, and is the first foal to race out of Sweet Marini, a fast synthetic-surface sprinter during her racing career.