Spina looks to cap excellent meet in Red Bank Stakes

Through 25 racing seasons, between 1998 and 2022, trainer Chuck Spina won a total of three stakes races. During the 2023 meet at Monmouth Park, which ends next week, Spina has won . . . three stakes races. Spina’s summer to remember can become even more memorable Monday when he sends out There Are No Words in the $100,000 Red Bank Stakes.

There Are No Words is one of seven in the Red Bank, a one-mile turf race, and he’s the one to beat if he runs back to his second-place finish Aug. 13 in the $120,000 Oceanport Stakes.

Spina, who turned 75 in June, has been stabling at Monmouth for decades and the two-year stretch of 2022-23 has been the best of his career. In 2022, he won 12 races, his most during a Monmouth meet, and he has nine winners this season. His purse earnings so far in 2023 top $659,000, also a career high.

Like most of Spina’s stock, There Are No Words is a New Jersey-bred. He was good last year at age 3, and while winless in three starts this season, There Are No Words has improved. A combination of ring-rustiness and a speed duel led to a distant eighth-place finish in his first start this Monmouth meet, but There Are No Words came back with a fine second in the Irish War Cry for New Jersey-breds. There Are No Words might have moved a touch early into a strong pace in the Irish War Cry, and he improved again in the Oceanport, where jockey Jomar Torres gave There Are No Words a more patient ride. Coming from midpack behind a moderate pace, There Are No Words finished well to beat all save Highestdistinction, who ran a career best.

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There Are No Words also hit a peak with a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, and with just those three starts spread over about 10 weeks, he could be fresh enough to manage the relatively short turnaround into the Red Bank. A cutback in distance from 1 1/16 miles to one mile is a plus as well.

St Anthony, a rare New Jersey runner for trainer Neil Drysdale, was a sharp third-level turf-route allowance winner July 28 at Monmouth.He has gotten in plenty of subsequent work at Belmont Park, and has the look of an improving 4-year-old ready to hit a new top. Leading rider Paco Lopez was aboard last time and has a return call.

The Chad Brown-trained Principled Stand, last seen finishing third Dec. 13 in a $35,000 claimer at Gulfstream, should be part of the pace along with Megacity. Double Crown is a dirt horse, Belgrano is a turf sprinter, and Wicked Finn probably is in a little too tough.

◗ After failing to fill last weekend, the Charles Hesse Handicap for New Jersey-bred dirt routers made it onto Monday’s card. It drew a competitive field of seven and goes as race 6, immediately preceding the Red Bank.

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