Tag: Monmouth Park

OCEANPORT – After a year of “firsts,” 23-year-old jockey Isaac Castillo knows exactly what’s next to keep his career on the rising arc it is now on. “I need to win more stakes races. That’s the next step for me,” he said. After the breakout year Castillo has had at Monmouth Park, stakes victories are…

OCEANPORT – There are probably easier spots for Readyforprimetime to make his dirt debut than Saturday’s $100,000 Rumson Stakes, but a combination of circumstances has trainer Jeremiah Englehart willing to take a shot in the $100,000 feature on Monmouth Park’s 11-race card on Sept. 11. Readyforprimetime, fifth in the Wolf Hill Stakes at 5½ furlongs…

OCEANPORT – There’s a unique sense of excitement that consumes even the most grizzled of trainers when they have a promising young horse just starting out. Or, as veteran conditioner Rob O’Connor II put it, “Nobody ever dies when they have a good 2-year-old.” O’Connor hopes to know on Labor Day, Sept. 6, if he…

OCEANPORT – For trainer Christopher Davis to venture east to Monmouth Park, something he has done just once before in his brief career, there has to be a good reason. Visions of the Breeders’ Cup would qualify as that. Davis, currently based at Arlington Park in Illinois, will send American Sanctuary to Monmouth Park for…

OCEANPORT – It may be true that records are made to be broken, but jockey Paco Lopez keeps tying his own one at Monmouth Park. Lopez matched the record he set twice in 2014 by winning seven races on the 14-race card on Aug. 28, capping the performance with a half-length victory aboard Vigilantes Way…

OCEANPORT – Frank Russo still shows up early every morning for hands-on work with his four-horse stable at Monmouth Park, a routine he has maintained since he started training in 1976. But Saturday could be a little different for the 79-year-old conditioner. Belgrano, a 7-year-old gelding Russo says is “probably the best horse I’ve ever…

OCEANPORT – With the days dwindling to allow enough time to get a 2-year-old turf runner ready for the $500,000 Nownownow Stakes on Sept. 26 at Monmouth Park, trainer Jorge Duarte Jr., hopes a contender or two from his barn surfaces in the next week or so. One of those will make his career debut…