Monmouth | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘We Expect A Big Effort’: Pneumatic Fires Bullet Toward Preakness

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Pneumatic continued his preparation for the 145th Preakness Stakes (G1) on Oct. 3 with a five-furlong bullet work Monday morning in company in 1:00.85 over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga.

“On this track that's about as good as horses work,” said Scott Blasi, trainer Steve Asmussen's top assistant.

The homebred son of Uncle Mo returned to trainer Asmussen's barn at Saratoga Race Course following his 2¼-length victory in the Pegasus on Aug. 15 at Monmouth Park. He has worked four times over the training track and Blasi said the colt will breeze again before shipping to Pimlico Race Course on Tuesday, Sept. 29.

Under exercise rider Angel Garcia, Pneumatic worked in tandem with his Winchell Thoroughbreds stablemate Callibrate, a 2-year-old maiden winner. They turned in fractional times of :12, :23.80, :36 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.

“It was a solid five-eighths. They were out well,” Blasi said. “He's trained really good since the Pegasus at Monmouth. Off that work we expect a big effort in the Preakness.”

Pneumatic did not start as a 2-year-old. He won his debut at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 15 and followed with an allowance victory at Oaklawn on April 11. Asmussen moved him into stakes company and he finished third in the Matt Winn (G3) on May 23 at Churchill Downs and fourth in the Belmont Stakes (G1) on June 20.

“He's just been a late-maturing horse,” Blasi said. “This race being later in the year has allowed him to come along and come around at his own rate. It just seemed like a good spot after the race at Monmouth.”

Pneumatic is out of Teardrop by Tapit, a stakes-placed half-sister to Pyro, the G1 winning Winchell homebred trained by Asmussen.

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‘Very Fast Horse’: Track Record Holder Top Line Growth Headlines Sunday’s Salvator Mile

Different year, different horse, different Monmouth Park graded stakes race. But, trainer Kelly Rubley hopes, a similar result.

A year after the Maryland-based trainer shipped in with Divisidero to win the Grade 3 Red Bank Stakes, Rubley will look for history to repeat when she sends out Laurel track record holder Top Line Growth in Sunday's $150,000 Grade 3 Salvator Mile, the feature on Monmouth Park's 14-race card that day.

“Certainly that's the hope,” she said.

After making his 4-year-old debut in impressive fashion with a 5½-length romp at Laurel on Aug. 14 – a race in which he threatened his own track record for a mile – Top Line Growth will face seven challengers in the Salvator Mile his quest for his first graded stakes score.

The gelded son of Tapizar returned following a 10½-month layoff to sizzle a mile in 1:34.74 to launch his 2020 campaign. He set the Laurel track record for that distance on June 8, 2019 when he covered the distance in 1:34.07.

“It was very impressive,” Rubley said of Top Line Growth's comeback race. “He toyed with the track record he currently holds. He's a very fast horse.

“We have always felt he was a nice horse. We felt he deserved to try this race. His last race he had the conditions so we figured why not try it. It was a great start back. You hope you're not over-facing them when they're coming off a long layoff. Obviously, he was ready in that spot.”

Top Line Growth has consistently displayed two traits during his career: He likes to win and he loves eight furlongs. Owned and bred by The Elkstone Group LLC, Top Line Growth is 5-for-8 lifetime and 3-for-3 at a mile. Two of his career losses have come in Grade 3 stakes races: A third-place finish in the Smarty Jones at Parx last Sept. 2 and a fourth-place finish in the West Virginia Derby on Aug. 3 of last year.

“The race at Parx was one of his better ones numbers-wise,” said Rubley. “It was a bit of an off-track and I thought he did very well.

“We always thought he was a nice horse. He was a big, growing horse at 2, so he didn't start until he was 3. Luckily the owners were wonderful in giving me the time to develop him. He certainly showed up his first start.”

That was April 22 of last year, when Top Line Growth made his racing debut with a 9½-length victory.

Among the horses Top Line Growth will face in the Salvator Mile is Pirate's Punch, who was disqualified from first in his last start on Aug. 22 in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park. Trainer Chad Brown will send out Grade 1 winner Valid Point, with the colt trying dirt for the first time in his career.

Rubley, whose only two career graded stakes wins have come with Divisidero, has enlisted Joe Bravo to ride Top Line Growth.

“Joe rode him at Parx so he knows him,” said Rubley, who started training in 2014. “I felt that was a logical move.”

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New Jersey Commission Adopts Stricter Whip Rules: Prevents Use ‘Except For Reasons Of Safety’

On Wednesday, the New Jersey Racing Commission issued a strict new rule governing jockeys' use of the riding whip, according to the Daily Racing Form. Beginning in 2021, jockeys at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, NJ will not be allowed to use the whip “except for reasons of safety.”

The commission adopted the new rule unanimously, despite objections by The Jockeys' Guild. It is the strictest rule in the United States.

“The prohibition of the use of riding crops, except when necessary for the safety of horse or rider, will be perceived in a positive light by the general public,” said a statement from the NJRC. “The proposed repeal and new rules are of the utmost importance in adapting the industry to avoid the currently negative public perception of whipping a horse.”

Stewards will be in charge of determining whether jockeys used the whip to maintain control of the horse, and will be able to fine or suspend jockeys if they determine a jockey used the whip “to achieve a better placing.”

The rule continues: “If the riding crop is used, under the supervision of the stewards, there shall be a visual inspection of each horse following each race for evidence of excessive or brutal use of the riding crop.”

Specifications for the whip itself include that it must be “soft-padded [and] have a shaft and a soft tube,” that it does not exceed eight ounces in weight or 30 inches in length, and has a minimum shaft diameter of three-eighths of one inch. Additionally, “the shaft, beyond the grip, must be smooth, with no protrusions or raised surface, and covered by shock absorbing material that gives a compression factor of at least one millimeter throughout its circumference.”

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NYRA Partners With Woodbine, Monmouth For Cross Country Pick 5 On Saturday

The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) will host the first Cross Country Pick 5 of the Belmont Park fall meet on Saturday, teaming with Monmouth Park and Woodbine Racetrack, which will be hosting its lucrative Woodbine Mile Day card.

Live coverage will be available with America's Day at the Races on FOX Sports and MSG Networks. Free Equibase past performances for the Cross Country Pick 5 sequence are now available for download at https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/cross-country-wagers.

A full field of maiden 2-year-old fillies will start the action with Belmont's Race 7 at 4:08 p.m. Eastern. Stone Town, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, ran twice during the just-concluded summer meet at Saratoga Race Course, including a second on debut on July 19. The daughter of Tapizar was a $130,000 purchase at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Other contenders in the one-mile turf contest include the French-bred Frankel At Ascot, who was purchased for nearly $600,000 in 2019 and is now owned by Gary Barber. The daughter of Frankel, trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, made her debut at Belmont on July 9, running third. The Irish-bred Amortization, conditioned by Chad Brown, will make her first career start in a field that has 12 entrants and four also-eligibles, while Brynbella will go for trainer Todd Pletcher.

International flavor – and the first stakes on the card – will be added to the wager with Race 7 from Woodbine at 4:27 p.m. for 3-year-olds and up. A field of 10 will contest in the Grade 3, $125,000 Singspiel going 1 1/4 miles on the turf. Tiz a Slam will look to repeat after capturing last year's edition en route to a 2019 that saw the son of Tiznow win three straight stakes, starting with the Grade 3 Louisville at Churchill Downs. After winning the Singspiel, Tiz a Slam won again at Woodbine next out, taking the Grade 2 Nijinsky. Trained by Roger Attfield, Tiz a Slam has six graded stakes wins on his ledger and will be looking to become a winner at that class as a 3, 4, 5 and now 6 year old.

Monmouth will host the third leg with a 1 3/8-mile turf route in Race 10 at 4:41 p.m. A full field of 12, with two also-eligibles on the docket, will compete in a starter handicap for 3-year-olds and up. He Will, trained by Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer, won at Monmouth on July 18 and followed with a runner-up effort at the same track on August 22 last out. Duc de Calas, conditioned by Christophe Clement, will be making his first start since March at Gulfstream Park, where he ran second against allowance company. After not racing in 2019, Duc de Calas ran out of the money in his first two starts this year before hitting the board last out.

A seven-furlong turf sprint will mark the return to Belmont for the fourth race in the wager in Race 9 at 5:14 p.m. Ten New York-bred 3-year-old and up contenders, and three main-track only entrant, will vie for supremacy. Noble Emotion, trained by Jonathan Thomas, has won two of his last three starts, including last out against allowance company on August 21 at Saratoga that marked his 2020 debut and first race off a 10-month layoff. The Clement-trained Maxwell Esquire has finished on the board in four of his last five starts.

The Grade 1, $1 million Woodbine Mile will conclude the wager in Race 9 at 5:39 p.m. War of Will, the 2019 Grade 1 Preakness winner for Casse, will now look to win a second Grade 1 on turf in addition to his victory in an American Classic. The Woodbine Mile, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile in November at Keeneland, will also see Casse send out March to the Arch, who is coming off a 2 1/4-length score in the Grade 2 King Edward at Woodbine on August 15. Starship Jubilee, the defending Canadian Horse of the Year, ran fourth last out in the prestigious Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga. The 7-year-old mare will look to best males, and she takes on that class in a stakes for the first time since running sixth in the 2017 Grade 2 Sky Classic. Starship Jubilee, trained by Kevin Attard and bred in Florida, is 18-5-3 in 37 career starts with earnings of more than $1.6 million.

The minimum bet for the multi-track, multi-race wager is 50 cents. Wagering on the Cross Country Pick 5 is also available on ADW platforms and at simulcast facilities across the country. Every week will feature a mandatory payout of the net pool.

The Cross Country Pick 5 will continue each Saturday throughout the year. For more information, visit NYRABets.com.

Cross Country Pick 5 – Saturday, September 19:
Leg 1 – Belmont, Race 7: (4:08 p.m.)
Leg 2 – Woodbine, Race 7: G3 Singspiel (4:27 p.m.)
Leg 3 – Monmouth, Race 10: (4:41 p.m.)
Leg 4 – Belmont, Race 9: (5:14 p.m.)
Leg 5 – Woodbine, Race 9: G1 Woodbine Mile (5:39 p.m.)

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