jane cibelli | Horse Racing Free Tips

Payntdembluesaway Sprints To Victory In Claiming Crown Distaff Dash

All My Hart Racing, Inc.'s Payntdembluesaway dueled with 46-1 long shot Cat's Astray for a half-mile before putting that rival away and sprinting clear to a popular four-length victory in the $90,000 Claiming Crown Distaff Dash at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The Distaff Dash was the third straight victory on the program for jockey Paco Lopez including the $75,000 Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial with Blue Steel. Payntdembluesaway ($5.60), favored at 9-5 in a field of 12, covered the distance in :55.31 over a firm course.

“She runs the way she runs. There is no tactics or anything. She just breaks and runs. She's really, really fast, and she just loves to run,” winning trainer Jane Cibelli said. “Paco and I talked in the paddock and he said, 'What do you think? There's some speed in there.' I said, 'Paco, you've ridden her how many times? You know her better than anybody. Just when the gates open, see what she does.'”

Lopez has been aboard Payntdembluesaway for six of her eight career victories, including five straight from November 2019 to Jan. 28, part of the 5-year-old mare's six-race win streak. They broke alertly and immediately hooked up with Cat's Astray, going a quarter-mile in :21.67 and the half in :43.85, taking over the lead for good in mid-stretch and drawing away.

“That's exactly how she likes to run. She likes to sit on the outside of the speed and she was just running easily,” Cibelli said. “Paco wasn't asking her at all. She's just fast.”

Drop a Hint, at 19-1, emerged from a tight trailing pack to be second, with Beantown Baby third, Cat's Astray fourth, and Odramark fifth, separated by a head and two necks.

Payntdembluesaway returned to her winning ways after two consecutive off-the-board finishes, eight months apart. She was fourth after forcing the pace in the five-furlong Lightning City Feb. 24 at Tampa Bay Downs in Tampa, Fla., returning to be eighth following a wide trip over a yielding course in a 5 ½-furlong optional claimer Oct. 28 at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.

“You look at her previous races, and you think if she runs back to her races of last year then she wins the race,” Cibelli said. “But, that last race was disappointing. It was yielding turf and she was on the outside, but it was still disappointing. You [wonder], is she going to come back? She did.”

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Cibelli Denied Stalls At Monmouth Park: ‘When One Door Shuts, Another One Opens’

Jane Cibelli, leading trainer at Monmouth Park in 2011 and '12, has been denied stalls at the Oceanport, N.J., track that has served as her stable's summer home since 2002.

Cibelli said she was notified of the decision by John Heims, Monmouth Park's racing secretary and director of racing.

“Heims told me, 'I'm tired of it, you always want things your way,'” Cibelli said. “I told him, 'That's what I get paid to do to survive. I'm looking out for my owners' best interests.”

“I won't deny I said that,” Heims said. “Overall, her conduct is not necessarily conducive to the atmosphere we want here at Monmouth Park. It's a lot to take and not worth the aggravation. It's too much.”

Cibelli said she was once “ambushed” by Heims and Monmouth Park general manager Bill Anderson over shipping horses from her stable at Monmouth to race at other tracks.

“They said, 'You ship a lot.' I asked them which horses and they said they didn't know. I told them I hadn't shipped any horses that Monmouth had races for. I had 40 horses and 30 of them are turf. Monmouth has 12 races a week on turf. When my horses are ready to run, I want to run them. The majority of my horses have run at Monmouth.”

Cibelli admits to be “a little testy” and a review of rulings against her shows that she has been fined for behavioral issues and altercations with other licensees. In 2020, she said, she had additional stress and fatigue while undergoing what she called “triple dose chemo” that began in Tampa, Fla., and continued in New Jersey to treat ovarian cancer. For now, she says, she is cancer free.

“I made an effort to support the Monmouth meet in 2020 after so many bailed because of COVID,” she added.

Cibelli ranked in a tie for sixth in the 2020 trainer standings at Monmouth with 12 wins from 48 starters. The previous year she was eighth, winning 14 races in 66 starts.

“At first I was upset (about being denied stalls),” Cibelli said. “A couple of owners told me to call Bill Anderson. I said, 'I'm just not doing it. I've spent my whole life in this business, I'm almost 60 years old, and I'm not going to beg for stalls.'”

Cibelli said she was also going up against a culture at Monmouth Park that was “always a bit of an old boys' club.”

The track had no problem, for example, allocating stalls for 2018 to then leading trainer Jorge Navarro after he was fined $10,000 for conduct detrimental to racing when caught on a September 2017 video while watching a simulcast race from Gulfstream Park with owner Randal Gindi. Navarro's brother had just won the race and Gindi said, “That's the juice. That's the vegetable juice.” Navarro responded: “We f – – k everyone.” Gindi replied “We f – – k everyone and I line my pockets with the bookie with another $20,000. Oh yeah, life is great.”

Navarro, along with another Monmouth Park mainstay, Jason Servis, was indicted in March 2020 in connection with an FBI probe into doping of racehorses. Some of the incidents described in the federal indictment took place at Monmouth.

“I might lose a couple of owners by not going back to Monmouth Park,” Cibelli said, “but when one door shuts another one opens.”

She indicated she will likely maintain her stable at Palm Meadows in South Florida for the time being, race at Gulfstream Park, and then look to summer meets at other mid-Atlantic tracks including Colonial Downs, Laurel Park and Delaware Park.

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‘You Have To Be Ready When You Get Here’: Jane Cibelli Off To A Fast Start At Monmouth Park

Jane Cibelli knows exactly what it takes to win a training title at Monmouth Park, having accomplished the feat in 2011 and 2012. But that knowledge, says the veteran conditioner, isn't much of an advantage if the racing fates don't send a little good fortune your way over the course of the meet.

Cibelli, who has a full barn of 50 horses stabled on the Monmouth Park backstretch, has already given a hint she will be a factor in the trainers' race, sending out three winners on the opening weekend of racing to top the standings. Nine different trainers won two races over the three-day opening weekend.

So that begs the question: Can she win another title?

Possibly, she said.

Will she? That's a complicated question that depends on a variety of factors.

“Everything has to go your way,” said Cibelli, who has horses entered in three of the six races when Monmouth Park resumes racing with a Friday twilight card that starts at 5 p.m. “Races you are pointing to have to go when your horses are ready. That's probably the hardest part of the business right now because it's difficult keeping horses at their peak and ready. We were very fortunate both years we won the title that the races we pointed for went. We also claimed a lot more horses those two years.

“I think you'll find at most racetracks – with the exception of guys like Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown, who just have so many horses – that the leading trainer does a lot of claiming. It's a different game. I'm looking to develop more horses for the long term now. I enjoy that more.”

After clicking with 14 winners from 66 starts at Monmouth Park a year ago, Cibelli followed that with a solid winter in Florida, winning 24 races from 109 starters at Gulfstream.

So she returned to New Jersey with momentum, which was reflected in the first weekend, with two of her three Monmouth winners so far coming in maiden races. She also has a dozen 2-year-olds and expects to add to that total during the summer. That's generally not conducive to a training title campaign.

“I don't ever go into a meet thinking about being the leading trainer,” said Cibelli, who went out on her own in 1987, when female trainers were still a rarity. “I'm not going to jam in a horse for $10,000 that is worth $30,000 just to win a race to help me be the leading trainer, because you don't get any extra money for being leading trainer.

“It's an honor, obviously, and a notable achievement but at the end of the day you're trying to run a business and trying to get the best you can out of your horses. So if it happens, it happens.”

Monmouth Park's condensed meet, and the later start to it due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have also changed the dynamics of the summer for trainers.

“You can't use this meet to get ready,” said Cibelli. “You have to be ready when you get here.”

In a typical year, few if any of Cibelli's 2-year-olds would come into the Monmouth meet with a start. But by staying in Florida until the Monmouth Park backstretch opened on June 1 she was able to unveil some of her “babies.”

“I've had three 2-year-olds out already, which is unheard of for me,” she said. “Normally I don't get 2-year-olds out until the middle or end of summer. That's huge. I'm very happy with that.”

One in particular, a filly named Flight to Shanghai, showed plenty of promise in her debut, finishing second in a Maiden Special Weight race at Gulfstream Park on June 19.

“I very rarely win with first-time starters. It's by design. I don't turn the screws on them too early,” she said. “But she ran second and she ran huge. She looks like she will be a good one.

“My approach with 2-year-olds is `if they're ready, they're ready.' They don't have to set the world on fire at 2 for me. I like to keep them around at three and four and beyond. It's just how I do things. I'm old school.”

It's a formula that has served her well. Whether it results in another title this summer remains to be seen.

“Both years I won the title I didn't set out to win it,” she said. “It just happened. So you never know.”

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