Smoke Glacken getting winners

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Smoke Glacken was a champion on the track, and a champion to Monmouth fans. They watched him win his maiden, win the Tyro Stakes, and the Grade 2 Sapling here as a 2-year-old, and break the track record in the Grade 3 Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Sprint as a 3-year-old.

Now, Smoke Glacken, the 1997 Eclipse Award-winning sprinter, is showing signs of becoming a champion sire.

Smoke Glacken's first crop is at the races, and three of his 54 foals have won. Most of the foals have not reached the races yet.

Three of his 2-year-olds are stabled in the Monmouth Park barn of Henry Carroll, Smoke Glacken's trainer. Carroll, who trained Smoke Glacken to nine stakes wins, owns five seasons to the stallion, and purchased a sixth. Smoke Glacken stands at stud at Gainesway Farm, in Lexington, Ky., for $10,000, live foal.

His first winner came in May when the filly Smok'n Frolic won at Belmont. Last week, Where There's Fire romped to an 8 1/2-length win in a maiden special weight at Delaware Park, giving Smoke Glacken his third winner. Trained by Ben Perkins Jr., the 2-year-old Where There's Fire ran the 4 1/2-furlong race in 52.09 seconds, just off the track record of 51.80.

"I don't know that he got the best mares for his first crop," Carroll said of Smoke Glacken, "and if he's having this kind of success with those, he should do really well when he starts getting better mares."

Bonde gets first local win

Jeff Bonde, training for his first time on the East Coast, won at Monmouth for the first time Saturday, sending out the wire-to-wire winner Seayabyebye, at 6-5, in the eighth race, a one-other-than allowance. It was Bonde's sixth starter of the meet.

Bonde, 46, trained in northern California before moving his stable. Bonde has 20 horses stabled here, including what he says is a nice crop of 2-year-olds.

"We brought 20 here as a test case to see how we would do," he said. "I'm pleased with what I've seen so far. I think some of the horses needed a little time to acclimate to the new track."

* The Jersey Derby, won by the Mark Hennig-trained filly Mystic Lady on opening weekend, was reinstated as a Grade 3 after being reviewed by the graded stakes committee. The race was automatically downgraded one grade after being moved from the turf to the dirt.

* Thursday's feature is a $41,000 optional claiming race for 3-year-olds and up going one mile. The race marks the return to Monmouth of First Lieutenant, the fifth-place finisher in the $100,000 Long Branch Stakes here last year.