Tribhuvan, Gina Romantica return from layoffs on Haskell Preview Day
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It’s comeback day for the Chad Brown barn Saturday at Monmouth Park, where Grade 1 winners Tribhuvan and Gina Romantica start in Grade 3 turf stakes on Haskell Preview Day.
Tribhuvan is one of just six entered in the $150,000 Monmouth, a 1 1/8-mile prep for the Grade 1 United Nations over 1 3/8 miles. Tribhuvan wired the 2021 United Nations and last June won the Grade 1 Manhattan in New York. He’s set to make his first start since an off-form sixth-place finish last August in the Sword Dancer at Saratoga.
Gina Romantica starts in the $150,000 Eatontown, her first outing since she captured the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup last October at Keeneland. Brown also entered Consumer Spending in the 1 1/16-mile Eatontown, which drew eight entrants and is tougher than a race at this level is supposed to be.
Brown has another layoff horse, Curlin Stakes winner Artorius, in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile, one of two dirt stakes along with the $150,000 Pegasus.
Brown has gone 23-9-1-5 to start this Monmouth meet and over the last five years is 24 for 71 in Monmouth turf stakes races. That impressive stat undersells his actual performance. Brown often has run two or three horses in the same Monmouth turf stakes and has won 14 of the last 20 in which he’s had a runner.
Seven-year-old Tribhuvan was quite the revelation in 2021. A one-time winner of 13 starts in France, where he was bred, he lost his first two for Brown before a narrow allowance race win in July 2020. When Tribuvan returned the following May, he was a different horse. Gelded and now employing a front-running style, Tribhuvan led and finished second to his stablemate Domestic Spending in the 2021 Manhattan and followed up with his 2021 U.N. victory.
Tribhuvan ultimately will want to run farther than the Monmouth’s 1 1/8 miles, but he and new jockey Florent Geroux appear to be the rail-drawn controlling pace. Under the race’s allowance conditions, Tribhuvan carries 118 pounds, six fewer than one of his chief rivals, Never Explain.
Never Explain totes 124 pounds because he won the Grade 3 Dinner Party on May 20 at Pimlico. Trained by Shug McGaughey, with Luis Saez booked to ride the horse for the first time, Never Explain started his career winning once in 13 starts but now has a three-race winning streak. Learning to settle and not pull too hard has been key to the horse’s development, McGaughey said in Maryland, where Never Explain won his first stakes race. Never Explain got an excellent ride from Flavien Prat last out and prevailed by a half-length in a race where about one length separated the first five home.
Emmanuel, who came back to win the Poker last weekend at Belmont, was part of that blanket finish, as was fourth-place Speaking Scout, who shows up in the Monmouth with about the same chance as Never Explain but probably at a considerably better price. Catnip won a second-level allowance over this course last month and has upside as a lightly-raced 4-year-old. Commandeer isn’t without a chance, while pace dependent Dynadrive won’t get the right race flow.
Geroux also has the mount on Gina Romantica, who stepped up with a career-best to win the 1 1/8-mile QE II over stablemate McKulick. That was an especially meaningful Grade 1 breakthrough for a Peter Brant-owned filly who cost more than $1 million at a yearling auction during 2020. Gina Romantica’s first four starts came on dirt; she won the restricted Riskaverse in her grass debut before finishing fastest in an utterly paceless renewal of the Pebbles at Belmont before beating just five rivals in the QE II.
In fact, Consumer Spending looks the more likely Eatontown winner between the two Brown horses. A Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed last year, Consumer Spending returned from a layoff of more than nine months and finished an encouraging second in the Beaugay on May 7 at Belmont. The Brown-trained filly who beat her, Marketsegmentation, came back to lead all the way in the Grade 1 New York Stakes.
Third in the Beaugay, just a neck behind Consumer Spending, came Surprisingly, another Eatontown starter, Paco Lopez riding for McGaughey. Surprisingly had been on a steady racing pattern since December, and Consumer Spending has more room than she to improve Saturday.
Surprisingly traded decisions over the winter with Scotish Star, one of two primary pace players along with Katies a Lady. Scotish Star was run down in the Miss Liberty at Monmouth by Spirit and Glory, who finished very strongly and will have a chance at a price in the Eatontown.
Malavath is the Eatontown X factor. A close fifth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, she made her first start for trainer Christophe Clement in the Plenty of Grace on April 25 at Aqueduct and finished a well-beaten fifth at odds of 1-2. A more typical performance and Malavath is right in the thick of things under Joel Rosario.
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