Trainer decisions key to race

To handicap a race, it seems fairly important to know who actually is running in the race, and thus we come to complications with the $100,000 Politely Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

The Politely is carded for older fillies and mares at five furlongs on turf – exactly the same conditions as the $100,000 The Very One on Friday at Pimlico. Four horses are entered in both races, including two key players, Honey Pants and Payntdembluesaway. The other cross-entered horses are Hey Mamaluke, a main-trackonly entrant in both spots, and longshot Polished Gal.

Payntdembluesaway’s trainer, Jane Cibelli, is less than thrilled with Payntdembluesaway’s

weight assignment in the Politely, 124 pounds under the race’s allowance conditions, six pounds more than key rivals Honey Pants and Robin Sparkles.

“I think I’m running at Pimlico,” Cibelli said Thursday.

Christophe Clement, Honey Pants’s trainer, said Thursday morning he wasn’t yet sure where his filly would start. Four-year-old Honey Pants had solid form at age 3 but suggested she could be a considerably better 4-year-old in her most recent start April 9 at Gulfstream Park, where she easily won a second-level turf-sprint allowance race with a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure. Depending on who actually shows up for the Politely, Honey Pants’s stalking style could play well in a race that appears to have plenty of early pace.

One contender who definitely runs is rail-drawn Robin Sparkles, set to make her 5-year-old debut following a seven-month layoff. Robin Sparkles finished a solid second in the $100,000 License Fee at Belmont Park coming back from a winter break in April 2021 and should be set to deliver a representative showing Saturday.

“She’s doing great, and she comes back well” from layoffs, trainer Bruce Brown said. “It never takes much to get her back going. She keeps herself pretty fit, never takes a whole lot of training, and I’d say she’s coming back better than ever.”

Robin Sparkles’s three 2021 wins came in two allowance races and a New York-bred stakes, but her second in the

License Fee and third in the Caress say she can win the Politely. Drawn on the rail under Daniel Centeno, Robin Sparkles is sure to show her speed.

“The post takes a lot of the guesswork out of things,” Brown said.

If Athwaaq and Creative Girl go hard for the lead and make things tough on Robin Sparkles, and Honey Pants winds up in Maryland, Gogo Shoes has a late-rallying win chance. Gogo Shoes would prefer a somewhat longer turfsprint trip but got too much of the pace finishing sixth May 1 in the License Fee and can go a couple lengths better than that performance.

The Politely comes early, carded as race 5, post time 2:04 p.m. Eastern.