OCEANPORT, N.J. – Immortal Eyes and Ribo Bobo, a pair of veteran geldings riding impressive winning streaks, square off Monday in the $75,000 Icecapade Stakes at Monmouth Park.

The 11-race holiday card starts at 12:50 p.m. Eastern and concludes the core portion of the Monmouth season. Racing continues on the Jersey Shore with a two day schedule – Saturdays and Sundays – through Oct. 6.

The six-furlong Icecapade, the final open stakes of the year in New Jersey, drew seven runners, with Immortal Eyes breaking from the rail.

Why Not Be Perfect, a late-runner in a speed-laden field, headlines the $35,000 Portland Mile on Monday at Portland Meadows, part of an 11-race holiday card that includes six other stakes races and a total purse distribution of more than $139,000. It’s the biggest day of the meeting at Oregon’s flagship track, though the marquee race almost assuredly will be won by an outsider.

Timing is everything with Mucho Mas Macho, who will start as one of the most accomplished runners in the $100,000 The Vid at Gulfstream Park on Monday.

“What he needs is a headsy ride,” said Henry Collazo, who trains the horse for Signal Hill Farms. “He’s got a quarter-mile explosive run.”

Mucho Mas Macho can be dangerous when his kick is able to be unleashed at the right time. He was 41-1 when he got up for a neck win in the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale at Gulfstream in January. Into the lane, Mucho Mas Macho had just one horse beat in the 1 1/16-mile turf race.

This content is part of a free preview of DRF Plus. Click to learn more.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Halo Dolly, a nine-time stakes winner, has become such a fixture in trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s stable that he is having second thoughts of sending her to a sale in Kentucky this fall.

Hollendorfer said he thinks Halo Dolly can add to her accomplished record in races such as Monday’s $150,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Del Mar – and into next year.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Kathy Ritvo shrugged her shoulders and said “there’s nothing you can do about the weather” during training hours on Saturday morning and several hours later did as expected, scratching Mucho Macho Man from the Grade 1 Woodward due a racetrack turned to a sea of slop by heavy, overnight rains.

There are four stakes winners entered in Monday’s $50,000 Rolling Green Stakes at Golden Gate Fields, but even the two non-stakes winners merit consideration as value plays.

Eagle Screams, a 4-year-old making his stakes debut, will undoubtedly be the longest shot in the six-horse field even though he’s coming off a game victory in a first-level optional claimer at Santa Rosa. He’s 2 for 5 on turf, but 0 for 3 locally.

Trainer Gil Matos said the short field and the lack of other races locally until October prompted his decision.

This content is part of a free preview of DRF Plus. Click to learn more.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Aotearoa is the only undefeated runner among the eight starters in Monday’s $150,000 I’m Smokin Stakes for California-bred 2-year-olds at Del Mar.

“Let’s hope he stays that way,” trainer Leonard Powell said Saturday morning.

Nothing has come easy this year for Uncaptured. The 2012 Horse of the Year in Canada lost four straight races to start his 3-year-old campaign, and after defeating Ontario-breds in the Prince of Wales Stakes, Uncaptured will be sternly tested again Monday as one of the logical favorites in the $350,000 Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx Racing in suburban Philadelphia.

When Tim Glyshaw was trying to go out on his own as a Thoroughbred trainer in 2004, he caught a break when a racing writer and chart-caller named Cliff Guilliams recommended Glyshaw to horse owners he knew.

“It was my first horse,” said Glyshaw, who until that point had worked for years as an assistant to Bob Holthus. “It didn’t matter that I could outrun the horse. I was in the game because of Cliff.”

Golden Stripe, entering off an easy win in the one-mile Distaff for Manitoba-breds, will be looking to come right back when she faces six other fillies and mares in the 1 1/8-mile Matron at Assiniboia Downs on Monday.

A win or a second-place finish in the $50,000 Matron would push Golden Stripe past $300,000 in career earnings for her owner/breeder Phil Kives.