Focused Remembering Rita Takes Streak to Monmouth Cup

Trainer Doug Anderson said he was simply looking for a young horse with some potential when he claimed Remembering Rita for owner Jeral Keith Adams for $50,000 in November 2016 at Churchill Downs.

One graded stakes win and $254,946 in earnings later, the Spring At Last colt has them both dreaming big.

Winner of the July 6 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (G3) at Prairie Meadows last out, Remembering Rita will take on five rivals July 29 in the $150,000 Monmouth Cup Stakes (G3) at Monmouth Park, one of five graded stakes races on Sunday's 14-race betfair.com Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) card at the New Jersey track.

It's the latest major test for a horse that keeps defying the odds.

"You always hope, but you never really expect anything like this," said Anderson. "After Gary Stevens rode him at Keeneland (April 21), he came back and said, `He's not paying attention at all. This horse needs blinkers to stick to his business.' So we put blinkers on him, and that's when it happened."

Fitted with blinkers for the first time, Remembering Rita broke his maiden by 11 1/4 lengths. He followed that with an 11-length romp in an allowance/optional claimer, and then won the 1 1/8-mile Cornhusker Handicap, the same distance as the Monmouth Cup, by 1 1/2 lengths.

The 4-year-old will take on the likes of the hard-hitting Page McKenney, a winner of 22 starts.

"It looks like a pretty competitive field," said Anderson, who has not been to Monmouth Park since serving as an assistant to Scooter Dickey in the 1980s. "Hopefully, my horse will continue to step up the way he has lately."

Remembering Rita was only able to race once in 2017 after being claimed by Anderson "because of a bone chip that was worse than we thought," the trainer said. He said Adams was getting antsy to see his colt race under his colors again, "but he understood the situation."

"I think he is happy with the way things turned out," Anderson said.

Also on the Sunday card at Monmouth, 2017 Mother Goose Stakes (G2) winner Unchained Melody will look to regain her form in the $100,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes (G3).

The Brian Lynch-trained Smart Strike filly won the Mother Goose in July of 2017 for Hidden Brook Farm and Hare Forest Farm, but she was pulled up and vanned off in the Alabama Stakes (G1), her next start. Rested until a return to the races in May, she was fifth in both the Ruffian Stakes (G2) and the June 9 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) last out. 

The Molly Pitcher, for fillies and mares 3 and up at 1 1/16 miles, drew a field of eight. The Steve-Asmussen-trained Dreamcall comes in with a three-race winning streak, with Divine Miss Grey back at Monmouth following victory by three-quarters of a length in the June 30 Lady's Secret Stakes.

Entries: Molly Pitcher S. (G3)

Monmouth Park, Sunday, July 29, 2018, Race 10

• Grade III
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $100,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 4:36 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Valedictorian (NJ)	Carlos J. Hernandez	123	Kelly J. Breen	8/1
2	2Disco Rose (PA)	Angel S. Arroyo	116	Robert E. Reid, Jr.	15/1
3	3Divine Miss Grey (KY)	Kendrick Carmouche	123	Danny Gargan	5/2
4	4Viva Forever (ON)	Luis A. Rodriguez Castro	116	Louis C. Linder, Jr.	6/1
5	5Squan's Kingdom (KY)	Jose C. Ferrer	116	Patrick B. McBurney	20/1
6	6Unchained Melody (KY)	Jose L. Ortiz	116	Brian A. Lynch	7/2
7	7Dreamcall (KY)	Luis Saez	123	Steven M. Asmussen	4/1
8	8Berned (KY)	Joe Bravo	123	H. Graham Motion	3/1