OCEANPORT, N.J. – The early portion of Small Town Talk’s career was a series of stops and starts, with some encouraging efforts sprinkled among the gaps.

The 4-year-old colt finally settled into a productive, consistent groove this season with a transfer to the Chuck Simon barn at Monmouth Park.

His first start here was a close third after a layoff of more than three months. A pair of allowance wins then propelled him into the Majestic Light Stakes on the Haskell Day undercard, where he responded with a very solid third.

OCEANPORT, N.J. - Chamberlain Bridge looked like his old self on Saturday afternoon at Monmouth Park, surging in the lane to win the $62,000 My Frenchman Stakes for grass sprinters.

The 8-year-old gelding, the winner of the 2010 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, got his first win of the season in five tries. The victory followed a rousing second-place finish in the Arlington Sprint Stakes after blowing the break and falling far off the pace.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Ben Perkins Jr. passed on the Teddy Drone on the Haskell undercard for his stakes-winning New Jersey-bred The Hunk, thinking the $60,000 My Frenchman turf sprint this Saturday might be an easier spot.

Perkins, like the other trainers in the race, found the My Frenchman pool got a whole lot deeper when Chamberlain Bridge wound up in the entries.

It’s not every afternoon at Monmouth Park when a Breeders’ Cup winner lands in an overnight stakes.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The winners of the last two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Regally Ready and Chamberlain Bridge, face off Saturday at Arlington in the $100,000 Arlington Sprint, and both have questions to answer.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – High-class turf sprints tend to be among a horseplayer’s favorite, and one only need to look at a race like the Shakertown Stakes to see why.

Chamberlain Bridge won the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and started off his 2011 season with a stakes win, and all seemed well in the world of one of the country’s top grass dashers. By the end of 2011, that had changed. Chamberlain Bridge took some tough trips and experienced some bad luck, but he lost six straight races after that first victory last year. After getting wiped out on the turn in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Chamberlain Bridge clunked home fourth in a Nov. 24 Churchill allowance race, and it seemed fair to wonder if Chamberlain Bridge had nowhere to go but down.

After six straight losses – four as the betting favorite – Chamberlain Bridge was moving toward twilight. The horse turns 8 in a couple weeks. Once a claimer, Chamberlain Bridge rose to the top of the sport, winning the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 2010. But as the recent losses piled up, even Chamberlain Bridge’s trainer, Bret Calhoun, wondered whether his horse still had his mind in the game. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For someone who sent out two Breeders’ Cup winners last year, trainer Bret Calhoun sure has flown under the radar this week. The 47-year-old Texan is back with one of those winners, Chamberlain Bridge, who started from post 1 when he captured the 2010 BC Turf Sprint and will break from post 14 with Jamie Theriot back aboard when he defends his title Saturday in the $1 million race at Churchill Downs.

Chamberlain Bridge and Heros Reward, a pai r of millionaires with 30 career victories between them, will attempt to turn back the clock to their glory days while fighting off challenges from two of this season’s up-and-coming turf sprinters, Ben’s Cat and Regally Ready, in Monday’s Turf Monster Handicap at Parx Racing.

The Grade 3, $350,000 Turf Monster is part of a three-stakes package worth $850,000 on the holiday card with the $300,000 Smarty Jones for 3-year-olds on the main track and the $200,000 Turf Amazon Handicap for fillies and mares.