Regally Irish looks to rebound in Irish War Cry Handicap

The $75,000 Irish War Cry Handicap appears on Monmouth Park’s schedule this year to honor the millionaire and 2017 New Jersey-bred horse of the year, who won three graded stakes and finished second in the 2017 Belmont Stakes. Fittingly, his human connections and his equine family tree are represented by Regally Irish in this one-mile turf event for New Jersey-breds, which goes as the third race on Saturday’s 11-race card at Monmouth.

Regally Irish races as a homebred for Isabelle de Tomaso – whose father was the late Amory L. Haskell, the first president and chairman of the Monmouth Park Jockey Club and the namesake of its signature race – and is trained by Graham Motion. The same connections campaigned Irish War Cry. Not only that, but Regally Irish is by Regal Ransom out of the Even the Score mare Irish Score, who is a half-sister to Irish War Cry as well as to Grade 3 winner Irish Strait.

Regally Irish, stakes-placed last year as a 2-year-old, earned his first stakes victory in April, taking the Bridgetown Stakes sprinting on the Aqueduct turf. He earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 77. Since then, he has finished fifth in the Tom Ridge Stakes on Presque Isle’s synthetic track and was fourth in the Stanton Stakes on the Delaware Park turf. Nik Juarez has the mount on this colt in the field of six.

Golden Brown, who will have Paco Lopez in the irons for trainer Patrick McBurney, looms large as he enters the Irish War Cry off two straight wins. He most recently won the Dan Horn Handicap for statebreds on June 23, defeating Irish Strait by a half-length after finishing second to that foe in the same race last year. Don’s Marsh, a distant third in the Dan Horn, also returns for the Irish War Cry.

Golden Brown won the Grade 3 Kent Stakes at Delaware last year. He was flattered when runner-up Hot Springs took two stakes at Churchill Downs later in the year, including the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf, and third-place finisher Carrick subsequently won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park.

Golden Brown carries high weight of 126 pounds in the Irish War Cry, compared to Regally Irish’s 122 pounds. Don’s Marsh is next in the weights at 118. The other three members of this field are all making their stakes debuts.