OCEANPORT, N.J. – Year after year, trainer Chad Brown’s barn is filled with quality filly and mare turf horses, and Monmouth’s Matchmaker Stakes has been a major goal.
Brown has won the race seven times, including the last four editions, and he entered three in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 renewal at 1 1/8 miles on the Monmouth Park turf.
The much anticipated opening day of the Del Mar summer meeting, the highlight of the California racing calendar for many participants and racing fans, arrives a bit later than normal this year.
Besides moving opening day to a Saturday, much of Del Mar is the same. The season offers the best racing of the year in the West, exceptional late summer weather, and a continued emphasis on turf racing, which has become the norm at many leading venues in the nation in recent years.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Nobody seems to know who the Revolutionary War figure Molly Pitcher actually was. In fact, nobody seems to know if a single woman came to be known in legend as Molly Pitcher. As for the stakes race Saturday at Monmouth Park bearing the name of that person, or non-person, everybody knows who’s winning.
Idiomatic was champion older female of 2023, and while she comes to Monmouth following a surprise defeat last month at Saratoga, Idiomatic could give the Molly Pitcher opposition a half-furlong head start and still race competitively.
We’ll see if Candied can put up a fight against Thorpedo Anna in the Coaching Club American Oaks – the operative three-letter word being “see” rather than “bet.” And while Oversubscribed got a sweet setup in the Wild Applause, for me she’s a very likely Lake George winner at considerably lower odds than her morning line.
Out at Del Mar, an 11-letter word – inscrutable – describes the stakes action. And while Mindframe radiated value at 5-1 in the Belmont Stakes, his price plummets as a likely winner of the Haskell Stakes.
United Nations
There will be a lot of firsts Saturday at Del Mar – first day of the season, first weekend opener for a Del Mar summer meet since 1953, and first start in three months for the undefeated filly Medoro. Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 San Clemente will also feature Iscreamuscream, who is undefeated in two sprint starts.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – After a series of near misses in middle-distance turf events, Webslinger finally got it done when trainer Mark Casse stretched him out to 11 furlongs in last month’s Chorleywood Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Casse hopes Webslinger has found his niche at these longer trips, and the 4-year-old gelding looms a strong contender Saturday at Monmouth Park in the Grade 2, $600,000 United Nations going 1 3/8 miles on turf. The United Nations is race 11 and immediately precedes the Haskell Stakes on the biggest day of the Monmouth season.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – The gang’s not all here on the Jersey Shore. Bob Baffert has trained nine Haskell Stakes winners. Even when he loses, he nearly always has a runner for Monmouth Park’s main event. When Bob’s away, Todd can play, or so it appears this Haskell Day – though Danny and Brad can have a say.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Kevin Attard won back-to-back runnings of the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks with Munnyfor Ro and Moira in 2021-22. He will take a strength-in-numbers approach into Saturday’s renewal of the 1 1/8-mile event with the quintet of War Painter, Caitlinhergrtness, Inudation, My Girl Della, and Vucchella.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – My Boy Prince will continue his march toward the $1 million King’s Plate on Saturday’s Woodbine Oaks undercard in the $150,000 Plate Trial Stakes.
My Boy Prince put together a spectacular juvenile campaign that earned him Canadian champion male 2-year-old honors. He capped his championship season with a commendable third in the one-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita.
