Cornerstone Thoroughbreds' Medea, winner of the Eatontown Stakes (gr. IIIT) in her last start at Monmouth Park, looks to double up in the $150,000 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes (gr. IIIT) at the New Jersey racetrack July 27.
The 1 1/8-mile Matchmaker, for fillies and mares on turf, awards seasons to WinStar Farm stallions Paynter , Artie Schiller , and Drosselmeyer to the first three finishers. It is the ninth race on a 14-race Sunday program that features the $1 million William Hill Haskell Invitational (gr. I) for 3-year-olds.
Medea, a 5-year-old Danehill Dancer mare bred by her owner in Ireland, earned her first stakes victory in the Eatontown at 1 1/16 miles on the grass. Medea was eager early but rated in third under Forest Boyce, and then took over at will to win by a length over Triple Arch, who returned to capture an allowance test at Monmouth.
Boyce has a return for trainer Francis "Tres" Abbott III from post 5 as the 123-pound highweight.
Since her arrival in the United States for the 2013 season, Medea has finished off the board only once in eight races. In that race she encountered trouble at the start and finished fifth behind Jack Swain III's Dido, who will break from post 1 under Trevor McCarthy at 116 pounds for trainer Graham Motion.
Dido, a 4-year-old Bernstein filly, rallied to take fifth in the Eatontown; before that she had won three in a row on the grass at Tampa Bay Downs and Pimlico Race Course.
Motion, who has been hot of late, has two fillies entered in the Matchmaker. The other is Brereton Jones' She's Not Lazy, a 4-year-old homebred filly by Tiznow who finished fifth (placed fourth via disqualification) in the Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Delaware Park in her last start. That race, at 1 3/8 miles, was won impressively by Aigue Marine.
Rosie Napravnik is named to ride She's Not Lazy, with whom she has won before, from post 7 at 116 pounds.
Also in the field is Calumet Farm's Starstruck, winner of last year's Matchmaker for trainer Larry Jones. The irish-bred Galileo mare has not won in six starts since, however. She was also compromised in the roughly-run Robert Dick last time, clipping heels at the furlong mark and dropping out of contention.
Monmouth Park, Sunday, July 27, 2014, Race 9Entries: WinStar Matchmaker S. (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Dido (KY) Trevor McCarthy 116 H. Graham Motion - 2 2Starstruck (IRE) Kerwin D. Clark 116 J. Larry Jones - 3 3Lady Aspen (KY) Luis Saez 116 Todd A. Pletcher - 4 4Primed for Passion (KY) Victor R. Carrasco 116 Jonathan E. Sheppard - 5 5Medea (IRE) Forest Boyce 123 Francis Abbott, III - 6 6Nashly's Vow (MD) Xavier Perez 118 Lawrence E. Murray - 7 7She's Not Lazy (KY) Rosie Napravnik 116 H. Graham Motion - 8 8Parting Kiss (KY) Angel Serpa 116 Arnaud Delacour - 9 9Watsdachances (IRE) Jose Lezcano 120 Chad C. Brown - 10 10Irish Mission (ON) Joe Bravo 116 Christophe Clement - 11 11Emotional Kitten (PA) Paco Lopez 120 Wesley A. Ward -
