The $100,000 Eatontown Handicap (gr. III) for fillies and mares usually draws high profile shippers, but there are two home team representatives in Saturday's race at Monmouth Park who could get the job done.
G. Watts Humphrey Jr.'s Southern Fiction and Patricia Generazio's Cocktailsandreams, the one-two finishers last out in the Politely Stakes, are both in the Eatontown with a chance.
Southern Fiction, a 5-year-old Brocco mare trained by Vicki Oliver, won stakes on the main track at Monmouth last season. She made her first career grass start at Keeneland in April and found a home, winning an allowance race in style.
After running poorly in the Monmouth Beach Stakes on the main track here in June, Southern Fiction got turf again in the Politely and reaffirmed her love of the green, beating Cocktailsandreams by two lengths.
"She's got a perfect running style for the grass," Oliver said. "The last race was at a mile, and the Eatontown is a mile and a sixteenth, but the way she runs, I think she could go a mile and a quarter on the turf.
"She came out of that in good shape, and she's ready for this," the trainer said. "Joe Bravo is riding her back, so that's another point in her favor."
Frank Generazio Jr. trains Cocktailsandreams, a 6-year-old daughter of Lucky North who is a course and distance winner. The mare took an allowance race on the grass here last June 19, and that is her last victory to date. Cocktailsandreams, who prefers grass, performed poorly in the Monmouth Beach, and then came back to run a much-improved race in the Politely.
"She's ready," Generazio said. "That was a good race for her."
Cocktailsandreams gets in light at 113 pounds and will have Abdiel Toribio back aboard.
$100,000 Eatontown Handicap (gr. IIIT), fillies & mares 3 & up, 1 1/16 mile on turfPP.. Horse, Weight, Jockey
1. Maresha (KY), 113, Charles C. Lopez
2. Win's Fair Lady (KY), 115, Rosemary B. Homeister, Jr.
3. La Tizona (KY), 112, Jose C. Ferrer
4. Something Ventured (KY), 117, Jose A. Velez, Jr.
5. Southern Fiction (KY), 117, Joe Bravo
6. Love n' Kiss S. (KY), 114, Carlos M. Cruz
7. Sweet Deimos (GB), 112, Julian Pimentel
8. Stylish (KY), 118, Heberto Castillo, Jr.
9. Cocktailsandreams (FL), 113, Abdiel Toribio
10. Caught Out (KY), 115, Edwin L. King, Jr.
