'Big E' Out for Iselin Conquest

Tommy Roberts' Conquest Big E, a front-running winner of his last pair of races at Gulfstream Park, figures to be the main pace player in the Aug. 26 Philip H. Iselin Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park.

The nine-furlong, $100,000 event—which drew a field of five—goes as race seven on the program with an approximate post of 3:45 p.m.

Conquest Big E, who owns the highest last-out Equibase Speed Figure of the field, earning a 112 the one-mile Coast Is Clear Handicap July 23 at Gulfstream, will have to stretch his speed to nine furlongs, a distance he has yet to navigate successfully, but if there is a surface to try it on, it’s Monmouth's.

Bred by Gainesway Thoroughbreds, Conquest Big E—by Tapit , out of Seeinsbelieven, by Carson City—was a $110,000 pick up from the Conquest Stables dispersal last November at Keeneland. He tried graded stakes company last spring at 3, running unplaced in Gulfstream’s Lambholm South Holy Bull Stakes (G2) and Aqueduct’s Gotham Stakes (G3). South Florida pilot Jilver Chamafi heads to the Jersey Shore for the mount.

The class of the cast is William S. Farish's homebred Eagle, who has the ability to run down Conquest Big E on his best. Stepping down from graded company, the son of top sire Candy Ride  rallied from 11 lengths off the lead to win Indiana Downs' Michael G. Schaefer Memorial Stakes July 15. Trained by Neil Howard, Eagle was in 10 successive graded tilts prior, and finished just a half-length shy of Bradester  in last summer's Stephen Foster Handicap (G1).

Of the rest of the cast, Mr. Jordan, who is set to break from the rail, has a 2-1-2 slate in six starts at Monmouth and was second, beaten 1 1/2 lengths in last year's Iselin; Just Call Kenny has a win over the track and was third behind Sharp Azteca in the July 30 Monmouth Cup Stakes (G3); and Discreet Lover, who exits a fifth-place finish in Saratoga's Aug. 1 Whitney Stakes (G1) behind Gun Runner.