BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Handicapping Saturday’s $100,000 Tyro Stakes at Monmouth Park, it appears the jockeys on Florida-breds Monster and Win N Juice are likely to take a different approach in pursuit of winning the $100,000 event for 2-year-olds going five furlongs on the turf.

Monster was a nine-length winner of a maiden special weight on the grass at Gulfstream Park on May 23 after leading from the start. Win N Juice broke his maiden in his second start after coming from third against special weight maidens on the Gulfstream Park turf on June 20.

Although Monster did not win until his third start, trainer Jose D’Angelo said he thought the son of Pleasant Acres Stallions’ resident Leinster had shown promise from the beginning. He disappointed in his first race, finishing fourth in a four-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight at Keeneland then was sixth in the $246,000 Kentucky Juvenile going five furlongs at Churchill Downs on May 1, both on dirt.

“He was my early 2-year-old,” D’Angelo said. “He was doing everything perfectly. So I sent him to Keeneland and he didn’t break well. That’s normal stuff for babies in their first start. I thought I would try him one more time on the dirt in a stakes race at Churchill Downs.

After the race at Churchill, D’Angelo returned to his original inclination that Monster may like the grass, taking a cue from Monster’s pedigree. Leinster was a multiple graded stakes winner while sprinting on the turf.

“[The two races on dirt] didn’t work out the way we hoped it would so I worked him on the grass and he showed he liked it right away. Then he proved it when he won by nine lengths on the grass at Gulfstream. So he’s a grass horse now.”

 

D’Angelo also expects Monster to benefit from the time off as the Tyro will be his first race in more than 60 days.

“It was good to give him a little break,” he said. “After he won on the grass there wasn’t anywhere to go. There just are not a lot of 2-year-old races on the grass sprinting at the time of the year.

“So I think the layoff was good for him because he has already had three races at three different tracks. He’s still growing. I think he is better right now than he has ever been. He’s ready. We’ve been waiting for him to run again on the grass.”

Out of the Florida-bred mare Dienda by Kantharos, Monster was bred in Florida by Dr. Ross Russell and Deeann Smith Cavanaugh of Citra, Fla. He has earned $54,751 for current owner Arindel, who paid $25,000 for him out of the Bobby Jones Equine consignment at the 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Winter Mixed Sale.

Monster is listed at 7-2 on the morning line and will be ridden by Edgard Zayas from the inside post one.

“I like the post position,” D’Angelo said. “I think he is the speed of the race if you look at the fractions from when he won at Gulfstream.”

Trainer Nolan Ramsey also thought enough of Win N Juice to enter him in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile going five furlongs on the grass for his first start. However, he failed to rally from seventh of eight early and finished sixth. 

But Win N Juice bounced back with considerable improvement in his next race, coming from third to win a maiden special weight by a neck at the same distance on the grass at Gulfstream last out. In two starts, Win N Juice has earned $52,490 for Kelly and Ryan Daugherty’s Daugherty Racing LLC.

 

Win N Juice is by Ocala Stud stallion Win Win Win out of Famous by Vindication and was bred in Florida by Ocala Stud. The Daughertys purchased him for $30,000 out of the Ocala Stud consignment earlier this year at the OBS March Sale.

Isaac Castillo will ride Win N Juice from post eight and they are 5-1 in the program.

Rounding out the field for the Tyro are Thunder Chuck with jockey Madison Olver, Jeremiahtwentnine and rider Jorge Gonzalez, Joseph Bealmear will guide Red Lad, 3-1 favorite Hey Nay Nay (Ire) will have Paco Lopez in the irons, Samuel Marin has the call on Sir Newtons Laws, Efata with Sonny Leon up, no rider is named on Black Volt and Victor Espinoza has the call on Schwarzenegger.

The Tyro has been won by a Florida-bred 14 times including Expected Ruler (2015), Rip Roarin Ritchie (2012), Fellow Crasher (2008), He’s Got Grit (2005), Farno (2002), Pure Precision (2001), Unreal Madness (1997), Sacred Honour (1993) and Alaskan Frost (1990).

Return to the August 1 issue of Wire to Wire