Valedictorian to Aim for More Monmouth Success

Seeing no reason to mess with a successful formula, trainer Kelly Breen has entered Valedictorian in the $150,000 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes (G3T) July 20 on the Monmouth Park turf.

Epic Racing's Valedictorian has four wins in five tries on the Monmouth turf, including a decisive score in her most recent start, the June 22 Eatontown Stakes (G3T). Breen had some concerns ahead of the Eatontown as Mother Nature threw some rain into the mix, but the New Jersey-bred 5-year-old daughter of Temple City  still thrived—opening by four lengths in the stretch before cruising home 2 3/4 lengths ahead.

"There are not too many like her," said Breen after the Eatontown. "It's really fun to have her in our barn. She likes it here, but I didn't know if she would like it today with all of the rain we had, although she did win on a yielding turf at Laurel. But I was concerned about the footing."

Valedictorian is enjoying her most successful season. Her $303,330 in earnings already have surpassed any of her three previous seasons. She's won three stakes this year, securing the first graded stakes win of her career in February in the Suwannee River Stakes (G3T) on the Gulfstream Park turf before winning the Sand Springs Stakes there in March—edging two-time grade 2 winner Proctor's Ledge.

Valedictorian will stretch out a bit from 1 1/16 miles in the Eatontown to 1 1/8 miles Saturday, where she'll carry high weight of 123 pounds—spotting rivals three to seven pounds. Paco Lopez retains the mount.

The Matchmaker will award stallion seasons to the top three finishers—a total value of $50,000. The WinStar Stallion seasons include Yoshida, Audible, and Paynter .

Lael Stables will send out I'm So Fancy, a group 3 winner in Ireland who secured her first United States stakes win when she drew off in the stretch in the Big Dreyfus Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths June 16 on the turf at Laurel Park. The 5-year-old Rajj mare trained by Arnaud Delacour finished fourth in the May 18 Gallorette Stakes (G3T) at Pimlico Race Course in her first U.S. start.

Delacour saw improvement between those starts.

"She was much better today than she was Preakness day," Delacour said after the 1 1/16-mile Big Dreyfus. "She was a little bit nervous that day. Today she really had all of her composure, she was nice, and it all worked out.

"I just felt that in the first race, we learned a lot about her running style and what to do or not to do, and today we just tried to adjust a little bit."

Entries: WinStar Matchmaker S. (G3T)

Monmouth Park, Saturday, July 20, 2019, Race 11

• Grade IIIT
• 1 1/8m
• Turf
• $150,000
• 3 yo's & up Fillies and Mares
• 5:06 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Dark Artist (KY)	Nik Juarez	116	Jane Cibelli	10/1
2	2I'm So Fancy (IRE)	Trevor McCarthy	120	Arnaud Delacour	9/2
3	3Valedictorian (NJ)	Paco Lopez	123	Kelly J. Breen	5/2
4	4Touriga (BRZ)	John R. Velazquez	116	H. Graham Motion	3/1
5	5My Sistersledge (MD)	Jose Lezcano	116	Michael J. Trombetta	12/1
6	6Competitionofideas (KY)	Joe Bravo	116	Chad C. Brown	9/5
7	7Xenobia (IRE)	Luis Saez	116	Jonathan Thomas	8/1