Stalking trip could suit Two Emmys in Oceanport Stakes

One year to the day since the most important win of his career, the formidable gelding Two Emmys tries East Coast racing for the first time in his career. Two Emmys, who won the Grade 1 Mr. D. Stakes on Aug. 14, 2021, is one of seven older horses entered in the $100,000 Oceanport, a 1 1/16-mile grass stakes at Monmouth Park.

Two Emmys is formidable in accomplishment, though not in scope. A reedy English Channel gelding whom a casual observer would never identify as a standout in his training, Two Emmys carries 124 pounds Sunday, giving six pounds to five of his rivals under the Oceanport’s allowance conditions. At least the weather works in his favor: Two Emmys suffered from heatstroke when he went badly off form April 23 in the Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland, but during a scorching Monmouth summer, Sunday’s high temperature is forecast to be just 79 degrees.

The man behind the Two Emmys story, Hugh Robertson, is hanging out in his native Nebraska this summer. Robertson had his stable at Hawthorne Race Course until that meet ended in mid-June, when he sent race-ready horses like Two Emmys to Delaware Park with his son Mac Robertson, for whom Two Emmys races in the Oceanport. It was Hugh Robertson who plucked Two Emmys out of the 2017 Keeneland September yearling sale for $4,500; campaigning for Robertson and Wolfe Racing, Two Emmys has banked more than $800,000 coming into the Oceanport.

A good portion of that came in the $600,000 Mr. D., where Two Emmys set a slow pace and held off divisional leader and odds-on favorite Domestic Spending to win by a neck. That was no fluke. This past March, Two Emmys was a definitive winner of the $300,000 Muniz Memorial, from which second-place Santin emerged to win the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic.

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Two Emmys’s most recent start came in a much lesser spot, the $75,000 Outbound Ike at Hawthorne, but his win there marked an important step. Two Emmys showed he could successfully stalk the pace and finish, a strategy that might be required to win the Oceanport.

Two Emmys, who will have Carol Cedeno aboard in a race for the first time, drew inside two major Oceanport pace players, Winfromwithin and Mid Day Image. Mid Day Image hasn’t recaptured his strong winter form from Florida in two starts this Monmouth meet, and if he isn’t able to show sufficient speed, Winfromwithin, who gets six pounds from Two Emmys, could be tough to catch. Winfromwithin set a sprint pace and held on for a close second in the 1 1/16-mile Cliff Hanger on May 28 at Monmouth, and following a trip to Belmont, he tracked a very strong tempo and won a third-level Monmouth allowance race.

Mohs drops from the Grade 1 United Nations, where he was overmatched, while Hot Blooded has won two turf races in a row against lesser opposition. Be Here and Kuramata rise from allowance ranks but have talent and upside, Be Here for trainer Jonathan Thomas, Kuramata for trainer Chad Brown. Kuramata, in particular, should benefit from a contested pace and, in a rarity for a Brown-trained grass horse, will be a decent price in the win pool.

The Oceanport is carded as race 8.

Rainbow Heir

After failing to fill for Saturday’s card, the $100,000 Rainbow Heir got 10 entrants and made it onto Sunday’s program at Monmouth.

The Rainbow Heir, for 3-year-olds and up over 5 1/2 furlongs on turf, goes as race 10. Post time is 4:25 p.m. Eastern.

Sagamore Mischief was entered main track only in the Rainbow Heir, which is very likely to stay on grass, and there are bound to be other scratches. Outadore will be one of them. He runs in the Bold Venture on Saturday at Woodbine, trainer Wesley Ward said Friday.

Several entrants have a far longer résumé on turf than dirt. One of them is Milton the Monster, who will run on grass, trainer John Servis said.

The Rainbow Heir in the end could come down to the one-two finishers from the last Monmouth race in this division, the Wolf Hill on July 23, where Breakthrough held off Belgrano by a half-length. Breakthrough, running the race of his life at 16-1, was part of a furious Wolf Hill pace, turning back his speed rivals on the way to a 5 1/2-furlong clocking of 1:00.99, just .18 of a second off the course record. That win aligned with the recent trend for trainer Juan Avila, who has gone 7 for 27 with a $3.64 ROI over the last three weeks at Monmouth.