John Petrini's Joey P. kept his undefeated record intact when he rallied to the lead in the lane and held off all challengers to capture the $130,000 Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. III) in stakes record time of 1:08 1/5 at Monmouth Park on Monday.Trainer Frank Costa won his first graded stakes race.Joey P. sat off fast fractions of :21 1/5 and :43 4/5 before rallying past the pacesetters and posting a 1 3/4-length victory. Joey P. returned $11, $5, and $3.40 and topped a $36.80 exacta. Celtic Innis rallied along the inside for second and paid $4.80 and $3.40. Razor was another 2 3/4 lengths back in third, good for a $3.80 show."He's been training good and he's been eating good," Costa said. "When they're feeling good they'll run for you and when they don't they won't. He'll go as fast as he has to go. I've won stakes before, but never a graded stakes."Winning jockey Joe Bravo was happy for the trainer. "No one deserves a nice horse more than Frank Costa," the rider said. "I was very confident after an eighth of a mile. I could see that those two horses in front of me were really running, while my horse was just cruising. This horse is just a pleasure to ride."The Jersey Shore win marked the fifth in as many starts for Joey P., a New Jersey-bred by Close Up from the Luckey Jin Beau mare Luckey Lipco. He has how earned $194,820 for his owner.The previous stakes record for the Jersey Shore, a race restricted to 3-year-olds, was 1:08 2/5 set by Smoke Glacken in 1997 and equaled by Yes It's True in 1999.
(Chart, Equibase)
