A hot day at the Jersey Shore saw almost 10,000 come out to the track. It's always been funny about Monmouth Park, because it's so close to the beach, everyone will go there instead of the track when the weather is too nice--just like today.
Anyway, a lot of horses on or near the lead seemed to do well today, and I had a good amount of winners. Too bad they were all chalky.
Race 1 (Peter Castleboy, Eddie Broome-Abel Castellano, 1:39.0)
Ken Warkentin won the award for "Most Inaccurate Race Call of 2015", when he proclaimed that free-wheeling leader Al's Jubalee was up by 20 lengths on the backstretch, which quickly was changed to 25 lengths. The chart shows he was never up by more than 12 lengths. So not only was he not accurate, he wasn't even in the same ballpark. #comebackfrank
Peter Castleboy, meanwhile, waited off that leader, angled wide in the stretch, and drove past both Al's Jubalee and Stitcher, who proved he is simply not capable of winning.
Race 2 (Demand, Tim Kelly-Armando Ayuso, 1:12.0)
A sharp ride from Armando Ayuso, who saw that a hot pace was developing, and took Demand off of it. When the leaders started to tire, he made a three-wide move and rallied to win it. You have to give credit to Star Actor, however, who battled well to hold on for second. My "shore thing", True Simon, was on that fast pace, and flattened out to be a disappointing sixth.
Race 3 (Freestyler, Bruce Alexander-Daniel Centeno, 1:41.0)
Freestyler has established himself as my favorite horse on the grounds. This was his third win of the meet, all of them against tough competition, all of them in very gutsy fashion. Here, he snuck up the inside, and battled against courageous leader Congenial to score. Will we see him in the Salvator Mile? We'll see, but as I will explore in Tuesday's post, I have a way to en"shore" that horses like him get recognition.
Race 4 (Master of Hounds, Jamie Ness-Trevor McCarthy, 1:40.3)
I openly wondered why Ness ran Master of Hounds here, and not his (on paper) better stablemate, Puget Sound. Well, Ness won this race anyway, with Master of Hounds rallying on the inside to win it. Shows what I know.
Meanwhile, Paco Lopez gave a less-than-great ride on Gintraker, taking him off of the early pace, then promptly sending him right back into a battle for the lead. He blew his chance at a lone speed, and may have blown the race with him, too. Very un-Paco like.
Race 5 (Majestic Jess, Jorge Navarro-Orlando Bocachica, 1:41.0)
This race played out how it was supposed to, with the speedy Majestic Jess going out to an uncontested lead, and holding on until the end. He got a scare late, though, as Lure of the South was flying late and wound up missing by half a length. Very reminiscent of Bold Forbes's Belmont win over Mackenzie Bridge in 1976.
Also, Majestic Jess was 4/5. He was the most likely winner, but really, bettors, 4/5? That had to be auto-betting kicking in.
Race 6 (Summit County, Tom McCooey-Tommy Turner, 1:44.1)
It's always good to see veteran Tommy Turner get a winner, and he gets his first victory of the season with Summit County. Turner's never been a star, but he's been around the block for a while. Always good to see him get a winner.
As to how it went down, Summit County went to the early lead, and held off the closing rally of, well, just about everybody. Start Jumping was inexplicably bet down to 7/5, was rank and wide the whole way, and finished fourth.
Race 7 (Here's to Mike, Jane Cibelli-Paco Lopez, 1:34.1)
Call Wil, who I mentioned as a possible longshot play, almost took them all the way around at 18/1 odds. Here's to Mike, however, made a big four-wide move on turn and swooped by them all to win it. Arrive rallied up the rail and made a decent bid to finish second.
Race 8 (Loverbil, Jorge Navarro-Trevor McCarthy, 1:10.0)
With the scratch of Light's Gone Wild--who I assume will be going in the Select Stakes tomorrow--Loverbil went off at 1/2. He sat a perfect trip behind a speed duel, but had to use every ounce of his superiority to grind on by and win it. He's still a fun horse, but I was expecting something a little more impressive, frankly.
Race 9 (Double the Energy, Marcus Vitali-Orlando Bocachica, 1:02.2)
Double the Energy ran a good race, vying for the lead on the outside, and rallying past to get up. Girl From Glan was wide the entire way, but probably wouldn't have beaten the winner even if she had a trip closer to the rail.
Race 10 (Miami Music, Howard Brown-Daniel Centeno, 1:46.3)
Miami Music ran back to his form of old, moving up on the rail, angling three-wide in the stretch, and drawing off to an easy score. It's a riding double for Centeno, and the first winner of the season for Howard Brown.
Race 11 (Pool Winner, Alan Goldberg-Trevor McCarthy, :54.4)
In a race that was forecasted to have a lot of speed, favored Deterrent wound up setting an uncontested pace. Notably, Golden Story and Starship Wildcat were kept way off the lead. This was after dueling with each other the whole way around in their last start. Anyway, Deterrent soon tired, and Pool Winner, who sat a perfect trip rating off the inside, and angled out and drew off to an easy victory. His final time of :54.4 was just a few ticks off the track record.
Race 12 (English Manor, Hugh McMahon-Daniel Centeno, 1:11.3)
This race had an auspicious beginning, as Uncle Chub, who was my pick, refused to go at the start. That's never fun.
English Manor, meanwhile, made a three-wide move on the backstretch, continued that move on the far turn, and held off the final charge of Lagi Lagi. That one rallied five-wide on the turn and narrowly missed in the end. One to watch next time if he shows up again at this level.
That does it for Saturday's card. I'll see you in a little bit for Sunday's program.
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