Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Monomoy Girl in driver’s seat for 3-year-old filly crown
ELMONT, N.Y. – As Justify has established himself as the clear leader of the 3-year-old male division, Monomoy Girl has done the same in the 3-yearold female division. Unlike Justify, who has wrapped up a championship with his Triple Crown sweep, Monomoy Girl still has more work to do.
On Sunday, one day after winning the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park for her third consecutive Grade 1 victory, Monomoy Girl returned to Churchill Downs to prepare for a summer and fall campaign that is designed to end in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill in November.
Trainer Brad Cox said Monomoy Girl likely would have two starts before the Breeders’ Cup and is tentatively targeting the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 22 and the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx Racing on Sept. 22.
“Hopefully, we’re working our way to a 3-year-old championship,” Cox said. ”She’s the leader, so now we’ll try to seal the deal.”
Monomoy Girl earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Acorn by two lengths over Talk Veuve to Me.
Meanwhile, Caledonia Road, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2017 who finished fifth in the Acorn, was to undergo diagnostic tests to see if there are any physical issues with her.
No rush with Bee Jersey
Trainer Steve Asmussen on Sunday was still savoring his first victory in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap with Bee Jersey and said he will take his time before mapping out a plan to get the 4-year-old colt to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.
Bee Jersey held off Mind Your Biscuits by a nose in the $1.2 million Met Mile for the colt’s first Grade 1 victory and his fourth win in as many starts this year.
Bee Jersey, who earned a 109 Beyer Speed Figure, returned to Churchill on Sunday, and Asmussen said he will evaluate the horse before making a plan with owner Charles Fipke.
It is noteworthy that this year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile will be a one-turn race, unlike in recent years, when it’s been run around two turns.
One race under consideration for Bee Jersey is the Forego at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
“Will we run in the Forego at seven-eighths in a one-turn race according to how [he’s] doing, or will we actually run him farther in a two-turn race and back him into it distancewise?” Asmussen said. “All of those things will be discussed, but the deciding factor will be how he’s training, how he’s feeling.”
Noting Bee Jersey’s final time of 1:33.13, Asmussen said, “Without being positive, I don’t believe I’ve had a horse run a mile any faster than he did.”
Trainer Chad Summers said Mind Your Biscuits came out of the race “great,” and might consider running him back in the Belmont Sprint Championship on July 7. Summers did not rule out stretching Mind Your Biscuits out around two turns in a race like the Woodward on Sept. 1 at Saratoga.
“I can’t say that I don’t want to keep stretching him out, the way he ran yesterday,” Summers said.
Manhattan rematch looms
Spring Quality and Sadler’s Joy, the one-two finishers in the Grade 1, $1 million Manhattan Stakes on Saturday, might meet again in the Grade 2, $250,000 Bowling Green Stakes on July 28 at Saratoga.
Sadler’s Joy as of Sunday seemed the more solid Bowling Green participant. Trainer
Graham Motion said no plans had been set for Spring Quality and that a race like the Arlington Million also could be considered.
More than the top two Manhattan finishers merit attention going forward. Less than five lengths separated the entire 13-horse field, and the distance between each of the first nine horses under the wire was a neck or a head. But to the winner go the spoils – and in Spring Quality’s case, a careerbest 101 Beyer Speed Figure.
George Strawbridge bred Spring Quality and campaigns him under the nom du course Augustin Stables, and Motion credited Strawbridge’s patience for Spring Quality’s rapid emergence midway through his 5-year-old season. Now 6, Spring Quality won his career debut Oct. 24, 2014, but didn’t race again until March 12, 2016. He won that race, too, but then needed another 11 months before starting again.
“It really was never anything major with him, just nagging lameness that I don’t think we every really diagnosed,” Motion said.
Spring Quality, by Quality Road and out of the Deputy Minister mare Spring Star, is a mountain of a horse and likely needed time to grow into his frame. The pedigree leans dirt, and Motion, with a sound beast finally at his disposal, targeted Pennsylvania-bred races on the main track. It wasn’t until the Knickerbocker last October that Motion switched Spring Quality to turf, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Motion, who won the 2017 Manhattan with longshot Ascend, said that with the Manhattan as an early-season goal, not a great deal of consideration had been given to points beyond Saturday’s race. Spring Quality won the Manhattan over 1 1/4 miles but captured the Red Smith last November at the Bowling Green’s distance of 1 3/8 miles. And given the look of the gelding and the way he finished off Saturday’s race, 1 1/2 miles figures to be within his scope, which opens for consideration several important races through late summer and fall.
One and a half miles is the best trip for Sadler’s Joy, and he acquitted himself admirably with his Manhattan nearmiss while going a quarter-mile short of that distance, making a sustained run to wrest away the lead in the final furlong, only to be tagged at the wire.
“It was a tough beat, but we’re really, really pleased,” said Tom Albertrani, who trains the 5-year-old Sadler’s Joy for breeder Woodslane Farm.
“He ran a really big race considering we’re not at our best distance,” Albertrani said. Jockey Javier Castellano “did a good job timing it. He got him into the race a little earlier.”
Albertrani said Sadler’s Joy likely will get a brief respite from racing and be aimed at the Bowling Green. Sadler’s Joy won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga over 1 1/2 miles last summer and was a close fourth at Del Mar in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
Brown could have 3 for Diana
Trainer Chad Brown will have his choice from a bevy of talented older female turf runners for the Grade 1 Diana on July 21 at Saratoga.
A Raving Beauty added her name to that list with a threequarter-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 1 Just a Game, her second graded stakes victory in as many tries this year. A Raving Beauty earned a 100 Beyer.
“A Raving Beauty has gotten really good really fast,” Brown said. “She’s been a real fine addition to the barn.”
Brown said that jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. “should be given a lot of credit how he’s handled her.”
“She can be a little headstrong,” Brown said. “He’s gotten her to settle in both of her starts and then finish.”
Brown said Fourstar Crook and Sistercharlie, the 1-2 finishers in Friday’s Grade 2, $600,000 New York Stakes, also are candidates for the Diana, although the Grade 1, $600,000 Beverly D. at Arlington on Aug. 11 is another option for one of those two.