Sunny Ridge, Page McKenney try to pick up winning thread in Salvator Mile

Sunny Ridge and Page McKenney will each be trying to get back on a winning track Saturday at Monmouth Park when they meet in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile, one of four stakes on the card.

A late pick five begins on race 9 and encompasses the stakes, plus a conditioned $7,500 claimer, which closes out the 13-race program. If there is a single winning ticket, Monmouth is guaranteeing that person a payout of at least $150,000, regardless of the size of the pool.

While the guarantee is unlikely to come into play on this sequence, it also will be in place on the other four bundled stakes days of the meet.

Shaft of Light, trained by Jorge Navarro, and Chip Leader, from the barn of Todd Pletcher, should ensure a realistic pace in the Salvator Mile. Sunny Ridge and Page McKenney could be the beneficiaries.

Sunny Ridge returned from a 10-month layoff to finish a close second in a high-level optional-claiming race at Aqueduct in April. The race was his first since he was second to War Story in the 1 1/2-mile Brooklyn on the Belmont Stakes undercard last year.

A 5-year-old Holy Bull gelding, Sunny Ridge was bred in New Jersey and is owned by Dennis Drazin, the head of Darby Development, which operates Monmouth. He is stabled at Belmont Park with Jason Servis, who has a string of horses in New York and another at Monmouth.

“He ran his butt off in the Brooklyn, and he was never the same after that race,” Servis said. “The tests all came back negative, so we gave him some R and R at Mahoney Eden Manor up near Saratoga. He came down and rejoined me at Palm Meadows.”

Servis said he and Drazin considered running Sunny Ridge in the Brooklyn, but settled on this less-demanding spot.

“I’m looking forward to getting him in a groove and I didn’t want him to regress,” Servis said. “After this race we’ll probably try to take the next step with him.”

Page McKenney wintered at Palm Meadows with trainer Mary Eppler, who now has her entire stable back at Pimlico. Page McKenney went 1 for 3 in Florida and comes into the Salvator off a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile.

Eppler said she doesn’t think the 8-year-old ran his best race that day.

“He didn’t run bad, but I think he can do a little better than that,” she said. “He came out of the race with a low blood count. His blood is getting better. It’s not perfect, but it is much better than it was. He looks fantastic and he’s training good.”

Although the Gulfstream Mile and the Salvator are at the same distance, Eppler thinks this race is a better fit for Page McKenney, a winner of $1.8 million.

“He should like a two-turn mile better,” she said.

The Salvator is the first leg on the long-dirt division of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred Championships. It will be followed in the MATCH series by the Grade Iselin at Monmouth, the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup, The President's Cup at Parx, and the Presque Isle Mile.