A crowd of 10,363--the smallest of the weekend--came out for the Memorial Day program here at Monmouth. They helped bring attendance at Monmouth over the weekend to above 60,000 fans, representing the biggest attendance over Memorial Day weekend in Monmouth Park history. Attendance was up by more than 37%, while handle was up more than 22%. Very good news for Monmouth--here's hoping this continues for the rest of the season.
Race 1 (Empower, Marcus Vitali-Orlando Bocachica, 1:39.3)
Much to my dismay, my pick, Laghubaar, was bet down to 3/5 favortism. To make matters worse, Wilmer Garcia took him off the rail, and, even worse, had him engage for the lead in the speed duel with J's Buck Shot Bang. Unsurprisingly, Laghubaar wilted from this exertion, and Empower, who sat a great trip off the pace, rallied two-wide to win it. Of course, this was the other horse that I liked. It figures.
Race 2 (Allstar, Eddie Broome-Paco Lopez, 1:43.4)
Paco Lopez demonstrated why he's the best jockey on the circuit. He waited on the inside for Allstar, gave him the cue when a hole opened up, and got through to score. Great job keeping his horse on the inside, rather than swinging outside and losing ground.
On the other end of the spectrum, Lure of the South broke slowly, rallied four-wide into the stretch, and got up for a respectable second. Not a bad effort on his part.
Race 3 (Lookingoutforyou, David Jacobson-Andre Worrie, 1:12.0)
I know that the Jacobson-Worrie combination is a winning angle, but what good does it do if all their horses are short-priced? In this case, Lookingoutforyou was as high at 3/2 a few minutes to post, before everyone realized that was a pretty good value, and plunged him down to 2/5. Ack.
Of course, he won anyway, as he slid up the rail on the turn to draw off to a victory. Trouble With Girls set the pace and held onto the lead into the stretch, but found his competition much tougher than he did last time, and stopped to finish fifth.
Race 4 (Peggy Joyce, Eddie Broome-Paco Lopez, 1:03.3)
First of all, I realized I kept talking about this race on my blog as if this was a route, but it was actually a sprint. How could I have missed that?
Anyway, Had It All set the early pace, but tired late as Peggy Joyce rallied three-wide to score. My selection, Double the Energy, checked hard coming into the stretch, and swung wide too late to get second. If she was clear, she probably would have won. Watch for her next out.
Race 5 (Tashreeh, Kiaran McLaughlin-Joe Bravo, 1:10.1)
As it turned out, the switch back to dirt did wonders for Tashreeh, as he took the lead, shook off chronic loser Rare, and held them all off to win by three impressive lengths.
Charlesbrecknridge finally didn't break badly, but he rallied three-wide in the stretch and did nothing after that, finishing a lukewarm third.
Race 6 (Hyman Roth, Derek Ryan-Abel Castellano, 1:48.3)
Hyman Roth sat a terrific trip in here, rating behind speedy leader Bob and the Gang. When that one tired, he outkicked the rest and drew off to an easy five length score. He's a good horse, but not as good as the margin (or likely speed figure) indicates. Buyer beware for next time out.
Race 7 (Mr. Spaceman, Jason Servis-Gabriel Saez, 1:12.1)
Another horse who sat a great rail stalking trip and was the benefit of an unbelievably bad hang job by James Alex. You know, I thought that horse would be coming from the back of the pack to get up late. Well, he came from the back of the pack, alright, but he just stopped cold at the 1/8 pole. I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in for a tag next out.
Race 8 (Hothersal, Jason Servis-Gabriel Saez, 1:34.2)
I know I said just about the only way Lasso could lose this race is if he broke slowly. As it turns out, he got out a sneeze slow, had to be rushed up to be on the lead, raced wide the whole way, and checked out of contention to finish a disheartening last.
Hothersal, meanwhile, was wide the entire way around, but it didn't matter, as he rallied wide in the stretch and held off the late rally of Canzoni to get it done. Servis and Saez teamed up to win their second consecutive race of the day. Saez now has won more races in a two-race span than he did for the entire season prior to the seventh.
Race 9 (Light's Gone Wild, Chuck Spina-Jose Ferrer, 1:11.1)
Light's Gone Wild proved that his front-running maiden score was not a fluke, as dueled in the three-path, brushed off the rest of the duelers, and held off all his rivals, including heavily favored Little Hitman, to get the job done. This horse may prove to be a good one--I'm "shore" we'll see if he's legitimate in his next start.
Race 10 (Kenzadargent, Chad Brown-Jose Lezcano, 1:41.0)
No surprises here, as Chad Brown wins a stakes on the grass. In Kenzadargent's case, she had to wait on the rail for a long time, but once she got through, it was all over except for the cheering.
Race 11 (Trockette, Tim Richardson-Navin Mangalee, 1:06.1)
A tremendous effort was turned in by Trockette here, especially for a 20/1 first time starter. He dueled four-wide down the backstretch, was three-wide entering the turn, and didn't get tired to hold on for the win.
My pick, Elencino, was five-wide down the backstretch while on that pace, and had no chance once that happened. Bird Humor rated off that duel, yet showed no signs of a rally at all and was a lukewarm fifth. Anyone who bet him was really just disappointing themselves up for disappointment.
That wraps up Memorial Day weekend at Monmouth. Hope all of you guys out there made some money, and had as good of a weekend as Monmouth did. Let's hope better days are shining through for them.
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