Red-hot Colts Neck Stables trying to boost Meru's confidence
There’s no question Monmouth Park is the home track for owner and breeder Richard Santulli and Jorge Duarte Jr., who trains privately for Santulli.
Santulli’s Colts Neck Stables has a barn and a training track in Tinton Falls, N.J., six miles west of Monmouth. The Monmouth meeting is the focus of the operation’s season, and this one is going especially well.
After winning with two of their first 11 Monmouth runners this season, Duarte and Colts Neck have gone 8-2-0 from their last 10 Monmouth starters. The shortest-odds horse among this group was a 9-5 shot, so these are not can’t miss, odds-on favorites, either.
“We didn’t go to Florida this year, and at the beginning of the meet some horses just needed a run mentally as much as physically,” Duarte said. “We gear up for this track, but I did not expect to be this hot. We’re not doing anything different – it’s just the way it’s working out. The boss is happy, the horses are happy, the barn is happy.”
Monmouth this week switches from the six-race Friday cards that began at 5 p.m. to a 10-race program, first post 3 p.m., on which Duarte and Santulli have three entrants. Among them is Meru, who goes in the featured ninth race, a second-level dirt-sprint allowance with a $30,000 claiming option.
Meru started his career with a bang, winning his debut at Monmouth two summers ago before smoking the Smoke Glacken Stakes in a time quick enough to yield a 95 Beyer Speed Figure. Last June, following a good comeback race, Meru was favored in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens but faded badly to a distant last of five and never has gotten back to his best form. He did have a somewhat troubled trip last out in a Delaware Park allowance race.
“He gets antsy in the gates, maybe had some little physical issues. He needs to get some confidence back,” said Duarte.
In race 6, Duarte saddles Hooky Player, a first-time starter in a 2-year-old maiden turf mile. “Can’t say he’s the quickest learning,” Duarte said. “He’s a turf horse for sure and he’s ready to run. I just don’t know if he’s ready mentally.”