Monster Bea Seeks Del Mar Stakes Double

For Gary Barber's Monster Bea, the light bulb may have turned on June 16 at Churchill Downs.

In the Hat Trick   gelding's third try in conditional allowance company, he scored by 1 1/2 lengths on the turf at Churchill Downs, then shipped west—from the barn of Mark Casse to Peter Miller—to run in the Oceanside Stakes on opening day at Del Mar.

Monster Bea, with Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens aboard for the third straight time, made the well-regarded group of 3-year-olds look overmatched.

BALAN: Monster Bea Scores for Miller in Oceanside

Now Monster Bea will take another step up into the graded ranks in the Aug. 6 La Jolla (gr. IIIT), but against many of the horses he defeated soundly in the Oceanside. Five challengers will return for another 1 1/16-mile test—second-place finisher Moonlight Drive, Dressed in Hermes (fourth), Mr. Roary (eighth), Imperious One (ninth), and Ebadan (10th).

Familiar faces Liam the Charmer and last-out allowance winner Lucky Bryan—third and fourth, respectively—behind Mr. Roary in the Rainbow Stakes June 18 at Santa Anita Park are also entered, along with fresh allowance winners Free Rose and Burger and Fries.

Burger and Fries—a French-bred Sageburg colt who broke his maiden and won an allowance in the country of his birth before he placed third in the Prix Francois Mathet at Saint Cloud and ran fifth in the April 20 Prix Noailles (Fr-I) at Chantilly—will be making his first U.S. start for trainer Patrick Gallagher. Out of the Bernardini   mare Figarie, Burger and Fries is owned by David Bienstock, Chuck Winner, and Roberta Williford.