Saturday, August 16, 2008
Monmouth Park Barn Notes for Saturday, August 16, 2008
JAZZY TOPS COMPETITIVE FIELD IN SUNDAY’S INCREDIBLE REVENGE
OCEANPORT, N.J. * The Mark Hennig-trained Jazzy, beaten a nose in last year’s running of the $60,000 Incredible Revenge Stakes, is back for another try in Sunday’s turf feature * Monmouth stakes winner Prop me Up has been retired from racing, and will be sold as a broodmare prospect.
The race is named for G. Marion England Jr.’s outstanding mare who shipped in from West Virginia to dominate Monmouth’s grass sprints in the late 1990s. With Elaina Sheridan aboard, Incredible Revenge won the 1998 and 1999 runnings of the Klassy Briefcase Stakes (named for another brilliantly fast filly), and also took the T.J. Malley Stakes in ’99.
Fillies and mares who are today’s equivalent of Incredible Revenge and Klassy Briefcase will make Sunday’s stakes a wide-open betting race. A total of 14 were entered * some undoubtedly counting on capricious summer weather forcing the race off the turf * but only nine will be allowed to compete on the grass course with the starting gate in the turf chute.
Topping the field from Post 3 is Team Valor, Scott & Muir’s Jazzy, a well-traveled Argentine-bred who just missed in last year’s running of the Incredible Revenge. In her first U.S. start after arriving from South Africa, the Mark Hennig-trained mare made a big late run, but came up a nose short to Send Mean Angel.
After that race on July 21, the daughter of Mutakddim won the Capades Stakes on the Saratoga grass, and then took the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap on the main track at Belmont.
Her most recent Monmouth appearance came in the first running of the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint here on Oct. 26, when she finished last of 10 in her first outing ever over a very sloppy track.
She has yet to score in three starts this season, but ran well to be second on a yielding course at the Fair Grounds in March, and was beaten just a half-length total when fourth in a stakes on the Belmont grass last out on June 25.
Jazzy shipped in from Saratoga on Friday, and likely runs no matter what the weather brings on Sunday.
“She can handle most anything,” said Rob Rader, who is Hennig’s assistant at Monmouth and cared for Jazzy all winter at Payson Park in Florida. “The only track she did poorly on was the slop here in the Breeders’ Cup, and that might have been the competition.
“She’s won on firm turf, and on a fast main track,” Rader said. “We sent her to New Orleans this winter and she ran well on a yielding course. She runs her race no matter what.”
One of the interesting mares in the Incredible Revenge is sitting on the also-eligible list, in Post 10. Patricia A. Generazio’s Pure Disco, who has won five sprints at Monmouth including three stakes, is still looking for her first win of the season, and trainer Tony Wilson is hoping turf will be the answer.
Pure Disco, a 5-year-old daughter of Disco Rico has performed poorly in three of her four starts this season. The only glimmer of her usual front-running form came in the Open Mind Handicap when she set all the pace but was caught in the final sixteenth to run second.
“I’ve been trying a lot of things,” Wilson said. “Blinkers on, blinkers off, now they’re on again. She just hasn’t been the same mare she was last year, and I’m trying to get her to spark again.”
Foot problems have been part of the setbacks this season, but Wilson is hopeful they are in the past.
“We had Ian McKinlay (the blacksmith who took care of Big Brown’s problem feet) come in to shoe her,” Wilson said. “Hopefully, we’ve got the proper shoe for her now.
“I’ve been wanting to try her on the grass for a while. The turf might be easier on her feet.”
In her only career grass try, Pure Disco was beaten a nose by Serena’s Cat in last year’s running of the Klassy Briefcase Stakes.
MULTIPLE STAKES WINNER PROP ME UP RETIRED
Silly Goose Stable’s Prop Me Up, winner of three stakes at Monmouth and the Meadowlands last year, has been retired, trainer Joe Orseno reports.
The 6-year-old mare by Reparations * Natural Prop, by Proper Reality, ends her career with a lifetime mark of 8-11-7 in 37 starts and earnings of $473,478.
She is slated to be sold this fall as a broodmare prospect.
Prop Me Up, who broke her maiden at Monmouth in 2005, won the Lady’s Secret Stakes here last year, and then took the Red Cross and Long Look Stakes at the Meadowlands. She was given a try in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, but finished last of 12 on a sloppy track here.
This season, the mare made five starts, running third in both the Monmouth Beach Stakes and the Lighthouse Stakes here. In her final career start, Prop Me Up chased the pace in the Grade 3 Matchmaker Stakes here on Aug. 3, but tired to finish eighth.
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