rory huston | Horse Racing Free Tips

Roselba Holds Off Bramble Bay To Win Pinot Grigio At Monmouth

Roselba took control of the lead midway through the backstretch and then had just enough left to hold off the relentless stretch-long challenge from Bramble Bay to win Saturday's $85,000 Pinot Grigio Handicap by a neck at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.

Trained by Rory Huston and ridden by Ferrin Peterson, Roselba resisted the prolonged attempt by Bramble Bay to go by in posting her first career stakes victory and second win in the past three starts.

The winning time for the five furlongs over a firm turf course was :56.98. It was another 8½ lengths back in third to Ask Around.

“My strategy was to get the lead,” said Peterson. “There wasn't much pace in the race. When the outside horse (Jersey Jewel) was gunning for it right away I thought that I didn't want to burn my horse up early, so I let her go on with it. But then as we were approaching the turn she was coming over on us to force pressure. I decided I didn't need to get squeezed out and get in trouble, it's five furlongs, you have to let her go. So I let her go again and she was happy to go.

“My main concern was Bramble Bay and I felt going in that I had to open up enough so that Bramble Bay had a lot of ground to make up. I didn't expect him to be that close early on in the stretch. I could hear (jockey) Paco Lopez yelling, I could hear his horse breathing, and I'm screaming to my horse. I love winning that way, when it's really a duel and it takes a horse to show a lot of heart.”

Roselba, a Colonial Farm homebred, paid $5.20 to win in the field of seven Jersey-bred distaffers.

The 5-year-old daughter of Private Interview posted her fourth victory in 16 career starts and is now 2-for-3 sprinting on the grass.

“She's getting better as she gets older,” said Huston. “The other grass race she won she was game in that race as well.

“She is always close (to the speed) early. We figured, as long as she didn't get into a speed duel, she would be fine. Ferrin Peterson had to back off a little bit early on but then made the move for the lead at the right time midway through the backside.”

The post Roselba Holds Off Bramble Bay To Win Pinot Grigio At Monmouth appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Groovy Surprise Graduates to Stakes Winner In Smart N Classy At Monmouth

Trainer Rory Huston wasn't surprised that Groovy Surprise broke through for her first career stakes victory by winning Sunday's $75,000 Smart N Classy Handicap at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.

But he was bewildered a bit by how it happened.

Sent to the front almost immediately by jockey Mychel Sanchez, the 4-year-old led virtually every step of the way for a three-quarter length victory over Stay Smart, who hounded her throughout the one-mile race for Jersey-breds.

“The idea was we were going to lay third or fourth and when she went to the lead I was like 'okay, let's see what happens,'” said Huston.

Though Groovy Surprise had shown some speed early in her career, it had never been this much over this long a distance. Sent off at 5-1 in the field of eight fillies and mares 3 and up, she did all of the heavy lifting in the race, flashing under the wire in 1:38.21.

“It's been pretty speed-favoring on the dirt the whole meet, but especially this weekend,” said Sanchez. “A lot of horses that are 1-2-3 early are winning. Last year I saw she showed a little speed in some of her races, so I told Rory Huston I wanted to be close. I didn't have to be on the lead but I wanted to be close to the front.

“She broke really well. Paco Lopez (aboard runner-up Stay Smart) was putting a little pressure on me in the beginning so I thought `I have to go. I have to get clear and get a good spot.' After that, she did it herself. She did it easily.”

A year ago in this race, Groovy Surprise checked in a sluggish sixth. Stay Smart won last year's edition of the Smart N Classy.

But the combination of making the lead on a speed-favoring oval led to a dramatic turnaround.

“I kept thinking they were going to catch her but every time they got near her she drew off again,” said Huston. “She definitely needed her last race (a third-place finish in the Spruce Fir on May 31 in her 2021 debut). She ran well that day but she was a little short. I knew she'd be better this time. She has matured. You can see she is a better horse this year. I still wasn't sure she was going to stay. Most of her races have been sprints.”

A daughter of Giant Surprise-Good and Groovy by Good and Touch, Groovy Surprise posted her third career win from 12 starts. She is owned by Hope Haskell Jones.

Diamond Play, who moved into third place at the half, finished third, a head behind Stay Smart. So the top three finishers raced in that order for the final half-mile.

The field was reduced by one when Princess Georgia, who won the Spruce Fir Stakes in her last start, was a gate scratch.

The post Groovy Surprise Graduates to Stakes Winner In Smart N Classy At Monmouth appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

‘Everything Has Come Together This Year’ For Jersey-Based Trainer Rory Huston

For a trainer whose stable consists of “about 95 percent” Jersey-breds, Rory Huston could not have hand-picked a better final card for the Meadowlands-at-Monmouth Park meet as he closes out the best year of his career.

Saturday's 11-race program features three stakes races for Jersey-breds: The $75,000 Smart N Classy for fillies and mares 3 and up going a mile; the $75,000 Dan Horn for 3 year olds and up at a mile and a sixteenth on the grass, and the $75,000 Pinot Grigio for fillies and mares 3 and up at 5½ furlongs on the turf.

Huston has entered five horses in the three stakes races.

“I told someone the other day it's like New Jersey Thoroughbred Festival Day all over again,” said Huston.

With six horses entered overall for the final day of the Thoroughbred racing season in New Jersey, Huston has a chance to finish the best season of his 11-year training career with a flourish.

He has already matched a personal best with 14 wins (from 100 starters) this year and his 2020 earnings of $701,125 are a career-best.

“I would say yes, it has been our best year yet,” said Huston, who gears down most of his operation when the New Jersey racing season ends, returning to his role as manager of Overbrook Farm in nearby Colts Neck. “Everything came together well this year. The horses, knock on wood, have been healthy. The track has been good. A lot of the pots we won were for Jersey-breds worth $60,000, so that accounts for the earnings we've had.”

Huston will only start a handful of horses at other tracks after Saturday, with his focus every year on Monmouth Park.

“We'll run a few elsewhere after this, but mostly I will be at the farm,” he said. “We're foaling 15 mares and we have 11 yearlings that we're breaking. I usually stop once the weather starts to go bad. We give the horses a couple of months off and then have them ready to come back when Monmouth Park re-opens.”

Before that happens, Huston has some unfinished business.

He has Groovy Surprise and Dantastic in the Smart N Classy, Wallercito in the Dan Horn and both Joy's Pride and Pretti Tricki in the Pinot Grigio.

Groovy Surprise is coming off a third-place finish in a $16,000 optional claimer while Dantastic is coming off a solid Maiden Special Weight victory.

“I like the way Groovy Surprise is coming into this race,” he said. “I feel good about her. I feel good about Dantastic, too. She has needed to go longer. We've tried to go long all summer with her but every time we entered her the race didn't go.”

Wallercito comes into the Dan Horn off of consecutive runner-up finishes and is trying the turf again after breaking his maiden on the grass last year in his only career try on the surface. In the Pinot Grigio Stakes, Pretti Tricki will race for the final time, with the 5-year-old mare having banked $161,136 during a 21-race career.

“She's going to be a broodmare after this,” said Huston. “Hopefully she will run big and end her career well.”

Joy's Pride comes into the same race with her only career win on the turf, but is trying a grass sprint for the first time.

If just one of Huston's starters manages to find the winner's circle his win total for the year will be a career best.

“If it happens it happens,” he said. “This has been a very good year either way. My crew did a great job, my wife helps gallop and run the shed row, and everything has come together this year, even with the late start due to the virus.

“I have no complaints.”

The post ‘Everything Has Come Together This Year’ For Jersey-Based Trainer Rory Huston appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post