Count de Monet Wins Advent Stakes, Tyler's Tribe Third
Image:
Description:
Photo: Coady Photography
Count de Monet wins the Advent Stakes at Oaklawn Park
Charles Galli’s Count de Monet is now a perfect three for three after stalking the pace and then drawing clear to win the Dec. 9 $150,000 Advent Stakes at odds of 15-1 before an Oaklawn Park opening day crowd of 13,500.
As expected, 4-5 favorite Tyler's Tribe grabbed the lead at the break and proceeded to set early fractions of :22.33 and :46.11 while being closely tracked by Too Much Info . The winner, who had been stuck along the rail down the backstretch, finally got clear in the stretch, wore the leader down, and drew off to win by three lengths under jockey Santo Sanjur over the late-closing Alto Road .
Count de Monet ($33.20) ran the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:05.06 over a muddy track. Tyler’s Tribe held on for third.
“Everything he’s done here (at Oaklawn) has been tremendous,” trainer Tom Swearingen said of Count de Monet. "My experience since I’ve been coming to Oaklawn is you’ve got to get your horses used to this track. I don’t think they overlooked us. I think we were in against a horse (Tyler’s Tribe) that was a little more accomplished at the time.
"We’ve got to see how he comes back and progresses here in the next couple of weeks and maybe we do take another shot down the road. It will definitely be here. We’ve come to Oaklawn to run here.”
The 2-year-old son of Speightster captured his first two starts at Horseshoe Indianapolis.