Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport, NJ The Jersey Shore Oval will open this Saturday May 13th for it’s 78th season of racing. (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)
Eight Entered For Saturday’s $100,000 Long Branch Stakes As Monmouth Park 78th Season Opens With 10-Race Card
Tom Luicci/Monmouth Park
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Eight 3-year-olds – two trained by Butch Reid – were entered for Saturday’s $100,000 Long Branch Stakes, the feature race on the opening day program for Monmouth Park’s 78thseason of Thoroughbred racing.
A total of 90 horses (not counting five alternates) were entered for the 10 races following Tuesday’s draw.
The 87th running of the Long Branch Stakes, contested at a mile and 70 yards, will go as race eight. First race post time is 12:40 for Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Monday cards. When Friday racing gets underway in June first race post time for those days will be 2 p.m.
Didinger, a Kentucky-bred son of Bolt d’Oro, heads the Reid-trained duo, coming in off a victory in an allowance optional claimer at Parx on March 27 in his seasonal debut. Reid has also entered Ninetyprcentmaddie, a Pennsylvania-bred son of Weigelia who has four wins and two seconds from eight career starts.
Slip Mahoney, trained by Brad Cox, was a trouble-filled sixth in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial in his most recent start. Hayes Strike, trained by Ken McPeek, is just 2-for-10 lifetime but was third in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and second in the Grade 3 Street Sense, both last year. He was seventh in his most recent start – the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes.
All About Monmouth’s 78th Opening Day …
Monmouth Park’s 51-day meet will feature 48 stakes races worth more than $7.7 million. Ten are graded stakes. The Grade 1, $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes again serves as the headliner for the summer on July 22. The Grade 1 United Nations will also be contested that day.
Former Jockey Crystal Conning, the new paddock host at Monmouth Park. (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)
