Thursday, May 20, 2010

148 HORSES ENTERED FOR SATURDAY’S 13-RACE MONMOUTH OPENER

Monmouth Park opens this Saturday, May 22, with a 13-race program attracting a total of 148 entries. A total of 71 days will be contested this year, including the Elite Summer Meet, presented by Izod, when purses will average nearly $1 million per day. The Elite Summer meet runs through Sept. 6, with Monmouth concluding its 2010 meeting on Nov. 21.

Topping Saturday’s card is the $100,000 Elkwood Stakes for three year olds and upward, which attracted eight entrants, including Hardacre Farm’s Kiss the Kid, a graded stakes winner and multiple visitor to the Monmouth Park winner’s circle.


The mile and a sixteenth Elkwood, to be run on the turf, is one of the 90 stakes races to be run at the meeting, including 16 graded events. Centerpiece of Monmouth’s summer as always will be the $1 million Haskell Invitational, which has its 43rd running on Sunday, Aug. 1. Monmouth’s Grade 1 turf race, the $750,000 United Nations Stakes, will highlight Fourth of July weekend when it is renewed for the 57th time on Saturday, July 3.

In addition to the Elkwood, opening day will feature the $100,000 Decathlon Stakes for three year olds and upward going six furlongs on the main track. A field of seven will contest the Decathlon, which goes as race 5 on the program.

Monmouth will offer racing on Saturday and Sunday this weekend, followed by Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Memorial Day on May 31. The track comes back with live racing on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the summer, with additional Monday cards on July 5 and Sept. 6.

Gates will open at 11:30 a.m. and first post is set for 12:50 p.m. every day except Haskell Day, Aug. 1, when the gates open at 10 a.m. and first post will be 12 noon. In addition, Monmouth will offer twilight cards on July 9, 16 and 23 * first post 2:10 p.m.

Kiss the Kid, a 7-year-old by Lemon Drop Kid, enters the Elkwood Stakes off a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Ben Ali at Keeneland on April 18, 2010. Last season, he won the Grade 3 Appleton on the Gulfstream turf and was runner-up in the Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup.