The field for Saturday's $85,000 Jersey Girl Handicap at Monmouth Park was cut in half after four runners scratched, but the changes still weren’t drastic enough to benefit early speed. Riding Pretty, a 5-year-old mare trained by Eddie Owens Jr., made up seven lengths from last to earn her third New Jersey-bred stakes victory. Riding Pretty ran in the 2023 and 2024 runnings of the Jersey Girl, finishing in the money in both races without finding the winner’s circle. Losing half of her competition this year, including 2024 winner Mia’s Crusade, seemed beneficial at face value, but short fields always offer a tricky tradeoff for deep closers. With four runners in this year’s Jersey Girl, Owens was nervous that his mare would come up short again when Precious Avary, the 2023 winner trained by Tim Shaw, kicked clear to a three-length early lead. She completed the opening quarter-mile in 23.81 seconds. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports “In terms of the speed, the four scratches changed the race a lot,” Owens said. “I was worried that someone would get loose on the lead, which [Precious Avary] did, and I thought she would just walk around the track. But they put some pressure on her at the half-mile pole and that really helped us a lot.” Even after all three runners hustled forward to challenge the pacesetter on the backstretch, Owens was still worried that Precious Avary might have enough to kick clear in the stretch after a half-mile in 48.02. His concerns didn’t last, however. Entering the far turn of the one-mile turf race, Precious Avary began to show signs of fatigue, just as Riding Pretty and jockey Samuel Marin were kicking into gear from the back of the pack. Despite starting the race well behind in fourth, Riding Pretty flew up the rail to overtake the entire field. She was 1 1/2 lengths ahead at the top of the stretch and easily kicked clear of Precious Avary, who eventually faded to last. “I know it seemed like we were too far back, but I had a lot of power and she just took off,” Marin said. Sustaining her torrid, tail-swishing bid in the stretch, Owens’s mare completed the mile in 1:37.61 and paid $4.40 to win. She won by 3 1/2 lengths over Summer’s Comin, a 4-year-old filly trained by Mike Dini, who followed Riding Pretty on the far turn and rallied for second. It was a vast improvement over her seventh-place performance in the Jersey Girl last year. Summer’s Comin finished 1 1/2 lengths ahead of third-place finisher Bel Pensiero, a turf sprinter stretching out to a mile for trainer Anthony Margotta Jr. The 5-year-old mare chased closer to the leader early on but had little to offer in the stretch. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.