Russell looks to continue career year in Tale of the Cat
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Combine number of wins and win percentage and trainer Brittany Russell is having about as good a year as anyone in North America. Russell’s 76 winners through June 22 ranked 15th, and no other top-20 trainer in wins has a strike rate as high as Russell’s 28 percent. Russell, who has won at a remarkably robust clip since she began training in 2018, is going to blow past her career-best 100 winners she posted during 2022, and she’ll be expected to add to that total in the $100,000 Tale of the Cat Stakes on Sunday at Monmouth.
Russell isn’t a Monmouth regular and hasn’t yet started a horse at the meet, but Ocean City will be favored if the Tale of the Cat stays on grass, and It’s Viper could be the favorite if a rainy weekend forecast holds and the 1 1/16-mile Tale of the Cat gets switched to dirt.
Either way, the Tale of the Cat won’t have much of a field. Just six are entered in the main body of the race, with It’s Viper, Power in Numbers, and Arrebato entered main track only. Russell’s comments to Monmouth publicity this week suggested Ocean City could be scratched if the race is rained off.
Ocean City could be a vulnerable grass favorite. He’s a horse who absolutely wants to lead and faces one serious pace rival in Swan Legend and possibly a second in the stretch-out sprinter Playground Legend. By American Pharoah, Ocean City is out of the mare Unicorn Girl, making him a half-brother to champion dirt sprinter Jackie’s Warrior. Ocean City debuted in a dirt sprint for trainer Steve Asmussen, popping to the lead before fading to a distant fourth in the strongest maiden race of the 2022-23 Fair Grounds meeting. Switched to a turf route second out, he stumbled at the start and showed nothing, but at Keeneland in April, making the lead on a speed-favoring course, Ocean City cleared the maiden ranks in a turf mile.
That was April 20, and 10 days later, Ocean City, a $600,000 weanling purchase, was sold for $240,000 at Keeneland’s horses of racing age auction. Turned over to Russell, the colt was somewhat cold on the board at 9-2 facing 11 rivals in a first-level, turf-route allowance May 31 at Delaware Park, but he went clear and held off a rally from an older horse named Carronade. The official chart claims Ocean City “shortened strides late,” but the colt galloped-out well clear of the runner-up.
That said, a pace battle isn’t what Ocean City wants, though it’s hard to see who benefits if Swan Lake, a pace-and-fade fourth last out in the Jersey Derby at Monmouth, softens up the likely favorite. Swan Lake, the only horse among seven in the Jersey Derby coming back in the Tale of the Cat, pressed a 46.77-second half-mile pace last out, faster on TimeformUS pace figures than anything Ocean City has posted. Heathguard, fifth behind runner-up Swan Lake when last seeing racing action March 26 in a Florida-bred turf stakes at Tampa Bay, has a touch of upside and could be the one running late.
On dirt, It’s Viper cuts back in distance from a nine-furlong Maryland-bred allowance win and could find Power in Numbers a difficult horse to catch. The Chad Brown-trained colt dueled on a strong pace and battled bravely to a 1 1/2-length Monmouth first-level allowance win in his most recent outing.
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