Pick five has a $201K carryover, and a tricky sequence

Three longshots on Sunday’s card at Monmouth yielded an unhittable early pick-five sequence, which has produced a two-day carryover of more than $200,000 into Friday’s six-race program.

The early pick five, which has a 50-cent minimum, covers races 2 through 6 on Friday’s card. The carryover pool stands at $201,341 and the sequence looks challenging. First post is 5 p.m. Eastern.

Race 2 is the card’s nominal feature, a second-level New Jersey-bred filly and mare dirt sprint allowance race also open to $30,000 claimers. Rail-drawn Jersey Jewel looks like the quickest horse in this field of eight, and also, potentially, the most talented, but her baseline performance level on a fast dirt track remains uncertain.

Jersey Jewel ran decently setting the pace and finishing second in her career debut last year at age 2, a fast-track start, and in her second 2020 race she went to the front on a sloppy surface and won by a length. Back for her third start May 28 at Monmouth, Jersey Jewel, racing on a dry track, contested the pace and tired to finish seventh. On July 2, she caught a muddy surface, made the lead, and won a Jersey-bred first-level allowance by nearly nine lengths.

“I would say the wet track definitely helped her, but I’m not sure she needs it,” said trainer Kent Sweezey, “She ran so poor over a perfect track opening weekend [this meet]. Some horses are easier to get back fit than others and she tricked me. I thought we had her fitter than we did. We made a minor equipment adjustment after that race. Was it the equipment, being fitter, the wet track that helped? We’re going to find out.”

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Alta Velocita and Dantastic, respectively second and third in a similar spot July 9, will take plenty of betting in race 2.

Spun and Won is the X factor in race 3, a first-level dirt allowance carded for 1 1/16 miles. Three-year-old Spun and Won debuted July 17 at Monmouth and really caught the eye winning a maiden sprint race by 2 1/4 lengths, though the performance came up light on the Beyer Speed Figure scale, earning just a 71. By Hard Spun out of Crimson Maple, by Rahy, Spun and Won traces on the female side to the excellent dirt-route filly Sky Beauty, and the overall shape of his pedigree suggests he can route. But Spun and Won’s most successful sibling, Goldwood, preferred sprints.

“He’s well regarded in the barn, we think he can go a distance, and he’s training good,” said Jorge Duarte, who trains Spun and Won for his breeder, Richard Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables. “He’s done everything right. I hope we’re not disappointed on Friday. I’m aware the horses have more experience but hopefully I have the class and he shows up.”

There’s nothing approaching a standout in races 4, 5, and 6; the sequence demands a creative, wide-angle approach.