'Tale' the Favorite for the Jersey Shore

PJG Stable's Favorite Tale, a stakes winner in New York and a close up third last time out at Saratoga Race Course, is the 9-5 morning line favorite for the $100,000 Jersey Shore Stakes (gr. III) Aug. 16.

The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds goes as race 11 (post time 6:10 EDT) at Monmouth Park.



The bay gelding by Tale of the Cat   faces five on the main track and will have John Bisono aboard. Guadalupe Preciado trains the Pennsylvania-bred who has won half of his eight career starts, all around one bend.



Winner of the Gold Fever Stakes May 4 at Belmont Park, the Parx Racing-based sophomore bred by Paul Conaway was a well-beaten 13th on Belmont Stakes Day in the Woody Stephens Stakes (gr. II) in the Big Apple. He bounced back to run second, beaten by a scant neck in the six-furlong Oh Say Stakes at Delaware Park July 5.

Last time out, the front-running type battled the whole way and held for third in a blanket finish in the Quick Call Stakes on the turf at Saratoga under Rosie Napravnik.



Prudhoe Bay, a Florida-bred by Songandaprayer  , is 3-1 on the morning line and will break from the rail for Rustlewood Farm and trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. Seventh and third in a pair of higher end turf sprints this summer at Monmouth, Prudhoe Bay returns the main track. Earlier in the year he landed a pair of stakes wins against state-breds and finished fourth in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park.



Tim O'Donohue Racing's Debt Ceiling was third, just a half-length behind Favorite Tale, in the Oh Say at Delaware in his first start of 2014. He had an accomplished 2-year-old campaign with four wins from seven starts including back-to-back scores in the five-furlong Rollicking Stakes at Pimlico last May and the Bashford Manor Stakes (gr. III) at Churchill Downs. Not bad for a $27,000 Keeneland September sale purchase.



The son of Discreet Cat  —Top Marks, by Marquetry fired a bullet :59 1/5 Aug. 8 at Laurel Park for the assignment. He figures to move forward with his second start of the season.



Glacken Too was fourth, two lengths behind Favorite Tale in the Quick Call. The other two runners, Wonderfella and Griff, make their stakes debuts in the Jersey Shore.



[raceEntries date="8/16/2014" country="USA" trackid="MTH" racenumber="11"]