Wet Your Whistle draws in, then draws away to win Get Serious Stakes

Wet Your Whistle and Nice Tune were relegated to the also-eligible list when entries were drawn Thursday for Sunday’s $75,000 Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth Park.

Two scratches from the original nine that were in the body of the race enabled both horses to run. The two made the most of their opportunity with Wet Your Whistle, under Alex Cintron, cruising to a 3 1/4-length victory over the late-running Nice Tune, a 93-1 shot, in the Get Serious. It was 4 3/4 lengths back to pacesetting Rocket Heat in third.

Meanwhile, Vision Perfect, the even-money favorite, faded to eighth in the nine-horse field.

The win was third straight and fourth from 10 career starts for Wet Your Whistle, a 4-year-old gelding by Stroll owned by Bloomfield Farm and trained by Mike Trombetta.

Wet Your Whistle was the recipient of a great trip under Cintron. Wet Your Whistle, breaking from post 8 in the nine-horse field, was fifth and in the clear while Pool Winner, Fixed Point, and Rocket Heat were heads apart through an opening quarter in 21.71 seconds. Vision Perfect, under Nik Juarez appeared to be sitting a perfect fourth.

Around the turn, Cintron moved Wet Your Whistle four wide and by the head of the lane, he was second behind Rocket Heat, who had put away the other two speeds. Wet Your Whistle collared Rocket Heat in midstretch and drew clear for the emphatic victory. Nice Tune, seventh early on under Silvestre Gonzalez, rallied by Rocket Heat for second.

“He broke well, but I was behind Rocket Heat by two or three lengths and he kind of ran away from me so I just let my horse get comfortable,” Cintron said. “At the five-sixteenths pole, I asked him to go and he just exploded. He’s got a lot of talent.”

Wet Your Whistle covered 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:02.74 over firm turf and returned $15.60. The $2 exacta came back a seemingly light $538.40.

Wet Your Whistle had won his debut on dirt, but Trombetta soon discovered he wasn’t a true dirt horse. Still, several scheduled turf races were rained off to the main track and Trombetta couldn’t get him into a regular series of races.

Last December, Trombetta sent Wet Your Whistle to Woodbine where he won an allowance by 8 1/4 lengths over the synthetic surface. Trombetta said he convinced the owner to skip South Florida races and point to a Northeast campaign, which began with an allowance win at Laurel on April 25, running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:00.74

“That was a pretty fast time for that race,” Trombetta said. “It was a nice start and he moved forward in this one. It was the right day to have an outside post. Yesterday, not so much.”

Trombetta was referring to Saturday’s Preakness at Pimlico where his horse Win Win Win broke from post 13 on a track that favored inside paths. Win Win Win finished seventh. Trombetta said he may try Win Win Win on the turf for his next start, though he hadn’t selected where or when.