The streaking Meteor Storm will try to make Monmouth Park's $750,000 United Nations (gr. IT) July 3 his fourth straight victory, trainer Wally Dollase announced Saturday. "He'll have his last breeze here at Hollywood Park on Monday, and then ship to Monmouth on Tuesday," Dollase said of final preparations for the 1 3/8-mile event. "We're really looking forward to running at Monmouth." Meteor Storm, a 5-year-old English-bred by Bigstone, has rattled off three straight graded stakes scores in recent months. He took the San Luis Obispo and San Luis Rey (both gr. IIT) at Santa Anita, and the Manhattan Handicap (gr. IT) at Belmont in his most recent start on June 5. The horse came to the U.S. in March of 2003 after campaigning in France and worked through his conditions last season. "The plan was to bring him along slowly, through allowance races, and in distance," Dollase said. "The owners (Horizon Stable) had a lot of patience, I had a lot of patience and we stuck to our plan. And the plan has worked well. "He's turned into a super distance horse. The farther he goes, the better he likes it. We have a lot of confidence in him now." This will be the second cross-country trip for Meteor Storm this month, but Dollase says it will not be a problem. "He's a great shipper," the trainer said. "He's just a professional racehorse now and handles everything well."
Dollase's daughter Aimee will accompany the horse to Monmouth Tuesday. Dollase is scheduled to arrive sometime Thursday. "This will be the first horse I've started at Monmouth," Dollase said. "I've been there before, though. Several years ago, I was on the backside and I bought a horse there."
