Rap Tale looks to add polish to resume

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Turf or dirt, Rap Tale will take it as comes Saturday in the $70,000 Revidere Stakes for fillies and mares at Monmouth Park.

The 1 1/16-mile race, slated for the grass, could be headed to the main track as the Jersey Shore was buffeted by high winds and the threat of coastal flooding on Thursday, precursors of an anticipated storm that could soak the area.

Either way, Rap Tale will play, according to trainer Bruce Brown.

This will be one of the final races for Rap Tale, a daughter of Tale of the Cat who is only $22 shy of $250,000 in career earnings. A 4-year-old who is 7 for 28, Rap Tale is cataloged for the November sales at Keeneland as a broodmare prospect.

"We're trying to just keep her in stakes," Brown said. "Every little bit helps as far as being able to sell her as a broodmare prospect. We want to get her there looking nice and pretty."

Although based here all summer, Rap Tale has run only once at Monmouth this meet: a second in the off-the-turf Candy Eclair Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs.

She was entered in five grass races this season and four came off the turf. Her lone win this year came on the turf in an overnight stakes at Colonial Downs.

"It doesn't seem like it matters too much to her," Brown said. "She runs the same on either surface. You might think it will be a little bit easier off the turf, but a lot of trainers are probably entering thinking it will come off."

Brown was correct as six horses were entered for the main track only.

Of the dirt runners, Ididntmeantoo and Ask the Moon look promising.

Ididntmeantoo, a member of trainer Rick Dutrow's three-horse entry along with Diamond Dina and Cape Cod Girl, was the dominant front-running winner of a third-level off-the-turf allowance race here July 26.

Similarly, Ask the Moon rolled to a 5 3/4-length win in an off-the-turf allowance at Philadelphia Park. She won the Lighthouse Stakes in the slop here back in June.

If the race stays on the grass, Quiet Meadow will likely be the favorite following a pacesetting bid in the Grade 1 Diana Stakes at Saratoga where she finished eighth. Her prior two races were both narrow loses here in the Grade 3 Eatontown Handicap and in the Miss Liberty Stakes.