Sweezey having best Monmouth meet yet

It took trainer Kent Sweezey 81 starts and the entire Monmouth season during 2020 to notch seven wins. This year, Sweezey has dredged the same number of winners out of just 19 starters. Sweezey, before racing on Friday, sat sixth in the Monmouth trainer standings despite running, at most, roughly half the number of horses as any of the trainers with more winners at this meet.

And any astute bettor who latched onto Team Sweezey early this Monmouth season has a swollen bankroll: Sweezey’s 2021 Monmouth ROI is bonkers, $7.73.

Sweezey is second at the meet with three turf winners and said wintering horses at Tampa has proved a boon to his Monmouth string this season.

“When they got up here, you never know they’re going to run, but Tampa is a good place to get a horse ready, and we didn’t really push them too hard there,” he said. “Sure enough, we got lucky with a couple of them. We won with an off-turf horse opening weekend and with a horse I didn’t think had a shot, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re on a roll.”

Sweezey’s operation, generally speaking, is rolling downhill. He became a head trainer in 2017, coming to Monmouth for the first time in 2018, and his annual win totals have gone from five to 24 to 46 to 59 in 2020. Stable earnings tell an even more positive story, with Sweezey, who stands at 38 wins so far in 2021, having sent out horses that earned $1.15 million already this season after totaling $1.4 million in 2020.

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He has a full barn at Monmouth, with 35 head in his shed row, and is maintaining his string at the Palm Meadows training center in Florida. At the current Gulfstream Park meeting, Sweezey has sent out 10 winners.

His Monmouth string, at least, is heavier on claiming horses than anything else, and learning to play the claiming game has proven a boon to Sweezey, whose assistant-trainer experience came from an entirely different angle. Sweezey worked for Eoin Harty, Christophe Clement, and, before he went out on his own, Jimmy Jerkens.

“Those aren’t claiming people, obviously. I mean, working for Jimmy, they’re all treated like graded-stakes horses,” Sweezey said. “Starting out, you got to figure out where you can make your money.”

Its not all claimers in the Sweezey stable. Phat Man has come back to the Monmouth stable after a decisive win July 10 at Delaware Park in the $50,000 Battery Park. Seven-year-old Phat Man, purchased at a 2019 auction by a partnership that includes Sweezey, won the Grade 3 Fred Hooper during the winter of 2020 but has run below his best form during his ongoing form cycle while racing without Lasix. His last two starts on Lasix – the Battery Park and a March 28 Gulfstream allowance race – have yielded wins as well as Beyer Speed Figures comparable to his career peak.

“We weren’t sure about the Lasix thing. He doesn’t bleed, but he’s massive, like 1,300 pounds, so a horse like that automatically draws up a little with the Lasix,” Sweezey said. “Maybe that weight not coming off him hurt him.”

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Phat Man also returned to two-turn racing after making five straight starts in one-turn races, and a two-turn middle distance might be his best lick. He’ll get another chance in a race like that on Aug. 21 at Monmouth, where Phat Man is scheduled to start in the 1 1/16-mile Iselin Stakes.

Jersey girls meet again

Bramble Bay and I’m Listening finished one-two in the 2020 Jersey Girl Handicap and meet again Sunday in the race’s 2021 renewal.

The Jersey Girl is carded for one mile on turf, but a rainy forecast threatens to move the race to dirt. That would be tough luck for Bramble Bay, who has notched all four of her wins on grass and has a top turf Beyer Speed Figure of 82 compared to 57 on dirt.

In fact, Bramble Bay, trained by Mike Dini for owner-breeder Ballybrit Stable, hit that Beyer in her most recent start, a third-place finish in a second-level Belmont Park turf allowance race won by Kalifornia Queen, who was to run Saturday in the Grade 3 Matchmaker here at Monmouth. Anything approaching that performance and Bramble Bay will win Sunday, provided she gets the right surface.

I’m Listening raced for different connections in the 2020 Jersey Girl and was claimed in January at Gulfstream by trainer Kelly Breen, surely with races like Sunday’s in mind. She’s better on dirt than Bramble Bay, but if the Jersey Girl is rained onto the main track, the race becomes a wide-open affair.