Pals Broome and Hills in feature showdown

OCEANPORT, N.J. - The two leading trainers at Monmouth Park, Eddie Broome and Tim Hills, saddle horses in Wednesday's feature, a $37,000 allowance sprint for fillies and mares.

Hills sends Always on the Go, who makes her second start of the season and will be ridden by Eibar Coa. Broome saddles Lucky Baroness, a 4-year-old filly who raced well but didn't win this spring at Hialeah.

"Eddie and I are good friends," said Hills. "We have a rivalry, but it's a friendly one. We've been on the same circuit for several years and we like to have fun with it. Both our top assistants are husband and wife." Michele McSweeney is Hill's top assistant. Her husband, Bernie, works for Broome.

Broome and Hills start the week with six wins each. Both race at Gulfstream and Hialeah during the winter, and both have a history of getting out to fast starts at Monmouth. Hills has had most of his success with turf horses, but so far this meet, half his victories have come on the main track.

"It's never a good idea to get locked into being just a turf trainer," said Hills. "Obviously, we'd like to find a horse that can run well over both surfaces. I've tried to lay up more horses during the winter. We point for this meet and we've tried to time their return to perform well here."

For Broome, Lucky Baroness raced twice in Florida, encountering trouble in her last start. She is 0 for 5 with two top-three finishes at Monmouth, but will be teaming Wednesday with Roberto Alvarado, who was hot last week.

Carly Pooh is the only runner in the seven-horse field who has won at Monmouth. She hit the board once in four allowance races since claimed by trainer Tom McCooey. Carlos Cruz is the jockey.

Marquez gets seven days

Jockey Carlos Marquez was suspended for seven days starting Wednesday for careless riding on Minkie in Thursday's seventh race. The stewards made no change to the order of finish following a bumping incident in the stretch of the race, which was won by Minkie.

Everett Novak, owner of New Farm, is protesting the stewards' lack of action in the incident. Novak owns fourth-place finisher Silver Advantage.

In addition, Marquez was fined $100 for missing a mount in Friday's seventh race.