Spruce Fir highweights iffy, so Huston trio have a shot
Trainer Rory Huston’s operation centers around New Jersey-breds. Huston stables at Monmouth but also works off a training center in nearby Colts Neck, N.J. His stock races through late fall, early winter, then gets a break before gearing up again beginning in February for the heart of their season, the Monmouth Park meet. Huston hadn’t started a horse during 2021 until he ran two on opening day of the Monmouth meet, and in Monday’s featured $75,000 Spruce Fir Handicap, Huston trains three of the eight entrants.
Huston saddles Groovy Surprise, Dantastic, and Roselba in this six-furlong dirt race for New Jersey-bred fillies and mares. All three are eligible for a second-level allowance race, but Huston said no such spots were available, which is why the trio ends up starting their campaign in a stakes.
“I think all three have a shot,” Huston said.
It looks like a solid assessment. At 125 pounds, Diamond Play is the starting highweight in the Spruce Fir, but this is an 8-year-old mare who has done all her best work in turf routes. Diamond Play is 5-0-2-1 in six-furlong dirt races and her top Beyer Speed Figure in such starts lags 20 points below her best turf figure.
Stay Smart is weighted at 123, second highest among the Spruce Fir entrants, and there are similar concerns here. In a two-turn Jersey-bred dirt race, Stay Smart might look pretty salty, and the mare is a five-time winner from eight Monmouth starts, but there is nothing in her form suggesting a six-furlong sprint prove especially suitable. Crazy Daisy (122) has shown more pop than Diamond Play or Stay Smart running short on dirt, but she, too, prefers a longer trip and at age 7 lacks upside.
Dantastic was assigned 120 pounds, one more than Groovy Surprise, and Dantastic is the narrow choice to take home first prize in the Spruce Fir. The 4-year-old Danza filly, bred and owned by Tom Ryan, had a quiet 2-year-old campaign but turned a corner late last summer with the addition of blinkers.
“That really helped her,” Huston said.
In October, she scored a smart New Jersey-bred maiden sprint win before regressing in a two-turn statebred-restricted stakes race, but Dantastic rebounded to finish out her season with encouraging open-company allowance showings at Parx, winning her 2020 finale.
Groovy Surprise would have crushed Dantastic when the horses were 2-year-olds, but ended her 3-year-old campaign going the other direction from Dantastic. She could rebound following the winter break, while Roselba, weighted at 118, “has been training well,” Huston said, but looks a notch or so below Huston’s other pair.
Closers had all the best of things on Friday at Monmouth, first card of the first meet in North America where jockeys are permitted to use a whip only to ensure safety of horse and rider. Huston said his outfit never has been big on sticking horses during work or racing. Dantastic has the right stalking style if Friday’s race shapes persist, and she can give Huston his first win of 2021 and first ever in a Monmouth stakes.