The Jersey Oaks (Grade III)

The Jersey Oaks (Grade III)

A competitive field of ten 3y/o fillies have traveled to the Jersey Shore to compete in The 2016 Jersey Oaks, an 8.5 furlong affair with a $150,000 purse. It’s a wide open field, as all but one of these fillies are looking for their first graded stakes win.

PRIVATE EXPEDITION 9/2

Mxrayz33 enters Private Expedition at the top of this filly’s form. 2016 has already been a great year for Private Expedition’s connections: a win in the Also Sweet Dirt Filly, placing in the Pico Pequeno Dirt Filly at Santa Anita, finishing 1 ¼ lengths behind the winner in The Meadow Oaks, and pressing the winner late in the lool Oaks at Churchill. Make no mistake, while this horse has had success shipping to different tracks around the states, Private Expedition’s connections are acutely aware of the success her sire saw on this track. Look for this daughter of Verrazano to sit way back while the pace setters exhaust themselves; in her previous 8.5 furlong races, she typically shows her best stuff just after the final turn.

LOGAN SQUARE 10/1

After some success against some tough Allowance competition, Logan Square’s connections seem to have found the right distance for their 3 y/o by Distorted Humor out of the Arch x Street Cry mare, Arch Street. However, critics may state that the filly may need more than 11 day rest to take on a field that has placed in multiple stakes and graded stakes.

MAJESTIC LIBERTY 4/1

There’s no question Majestic Liberty is the hot horse coming into this year’s Jersey Oaks. What’s unclear is why mrxrayz33 would enter his peaking closer, Private Expedition, to possibly spoil that streak and ruin his prize 3 y/o’s confidence. If Majestic Liberty can mimic the fractions she ran in the First State Oaks (Grade II) and The Los Angeles Oaks (Grade II), she will most certainly be able to hold off a late push from Private Expedition, but anything slower and she may not tally her second Grade II win in a row.

KIRBYSGIANTDREAM 10/1

The entry of Kirbysgiantdream may be to the benefit of Majestic Liberty, who let the srt8-owned daughter by Giant’s Causeway take an early lead and then tire late last month in the First State Oaks. D. Viz, who had the mount for Kirbysgiantdream in that race, will look to implement the lessons learned in Delaware and keep the horse from burning all that energy early.

STORMY GULF 8/1

Stormy Gulf arrives in New Jersey looking to break a recent trend of middling off pace then falling flat late in the race. J. Maloney gets the mount again for the Ocala trainee, and he looks to improve on the duos performance in the Go For Broke Stakes in Delaware where they finished three lengths back. Stormy Gulf comes in with just the right amount of rest, and looks to capitalize on a field that has been pushing monthly outings.

ATHEIST 8/1

Atheist may need a little help from the man above as the baffy0 bred and bigcoleman0 trainee enters his second graded stakes after a disappointing 8th place finish in the Black Middle Flower Stakes on Black-Eyed Susan Day. The daughter of War Front out of a scratch bred mare by Seattle Slew x Street Cry, Atheist will need to top his best speed figure of 101 to even factor into the equation tomorrow.

NONIA CELSA 6/1

Theduke106 enters in his finest up-and-coming filly, an Britain-bred daughter Sea The Moon (GER) out of stakes-winning Alyzig, an A.P. Indy x Alydar mare, Nonia Celsa. Nonia Celsa is the rather unknown wife of Roman Emperor Macrinus, but the horse racing version has past performances that would indicate anything but an unknown existence. Nonia Celsa ships to the Shore after putting up a blistering performance to win the Crow At Noon T Dirt Filly Sprint during Ohio Derby weekend. With a little over a month off, this horse is indicating an improvement on that figure is likely, and at a preferred distance.

TOP O THE CLASS 7/1

Top O The Class takes a drop in class after finishing near the back of the pack in the Go For Gold Stakes (Grade I) two weeks ago at Saratoga. The toplight filly is facing off against a familiar foe in Majestic Liberty, who she staved off in order to show in The Los Angeles Stakes. If you are wondering how this horse fares with only two weeks left, look no further than the past performances: an increase in speed figures in each of her last five races, only one having more than a month’s rest.

NEAH 9/1

Neah broke oddly out of the gates at The Meadow Oaks and her jockey pulled her back, so don’t let the 14th place finish fool you, this horse is game for a fight tomorrow and will command more money at the window. Neah’s style sets up nicely to ride just off the pace and jockey B. Oston will certainly be asking a lot from this horse to battle off Private Expedition in the backstretch.

SADDLES OF BLAZE 6/1

If you told me that a Japanese-bred, daughter of a turf stud would be competing in the Jersey Oaks at 6/1 odds, I’d have called you crazy…but here we are with Saddles of Blaze. This sein2912 filly by Daiwa Major (JPN) is lightly raced in 2016 and hitting her form just in time for her first graded stakes appearance. She’s going to run a similar race as Neah, so her break and fight through traffic to the sit behind the pace is going to be key.

$2 Exacta – 4/6,1

$50 Win – 6