Something for Everybody in Monmouth Oaks

Eleven 3-year-old fillies passed the entry box for the Aug. 22 Monmouth Oaks (gr. III) and without a clear-cut choice for the 1 1/16-mile race, it's up for grabs. The $100,000 Oaks goes as race 11 with a post time of 5:46 p.m. EDT.



Seven of the fillies in the field are coming off wins, but only one of those came in a stakes. Alex and JoAnn Lieblong's High Dollar Woman won the July 18 Indiana Oaks (gr. II) at the same trip. Bred by WinStar Farm and a $675,000 Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. select sale grad, High Dollar Woman was a 15-1 shot at Indiana Grand Racing and Casino, but comes to Monmouth with a :58 4/5 five-furlong drill under her belt by trainer Steve Hobby.



She will have to come from post 11 in the Oaks and through Aug. 18 only three of 28 starters (10.7%) have won from that post in route races down the shore.



New Jersey-bred Love Came to Town, the Sleeter family's homebred, has won three straight, including a pair over the local surface, albeit in six-furlong races. The daughter of Medalist—Talking About Love, by Not For Love  , stretched to a mile last time out in an allowance score at Parx Racing. The Oaks will be her stakes debut and she'll break from post 10, which has a better 13.2% winning percentage (seven of 53).



Cheyenne Stables' Light the City (by Street Sense  ) topped Oaks entrant Money'soncharlotte last time out in an allowance/optional claiming race Aug. 1 at a mile and 70 yards. Light the City, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin (who has four wins from nine Monmouth starts this summer), placed in both the Las Virgenes Stakes (gr. I) and Santa Ysabel Stakes (gr. III) earlier in the year at Santa Anita Park with Jerry Hollendorfer.



George and Lori Hall's Money'soncharlotte was third earlier this year in Aqueduct Racetrack's Gazelle Stakes (gr. II), but was far from formful in both the Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) and Mother Goose Stakes (gr. I).



Moving forward into stakes company off a pair of wins is At The Wire's Curlish Figure, by the red-hot Curlin  , out of trainer Tom Proctor's barn. The $10,000 Keeneland September sale grad has the right on-the-pace running style for the Monmouth surface.



Of the non-winners last time out, StarLadies Racing's Eskenformoney (by Eskendereya  ) was sharp earlier this year in South Florida, but has also been unproductive in the Oaks and Mother Goose. The Todd Pletcher-trained filly seeks a rebound while dropping in class.



Calumet Farm's White Clover impressed in a pair of starts at Delaware Park for trainer Larry Jones, including a win at a mile and 70 yards in the Our Mims Stakes, but faded to seventh July 11 in the grade III Delaware Oaks.



Once a grade I race, the Oaks has been won by six members of racing's Hall Fame. The last two were Silverbulletday in 1999 and Desert Vixen in 1973.