![]() But the horse has shown he can sit back or lay a little closer if they are going slow. ![]() ![]() Trainer Michael Stidham said, “The horse got murdered at the start. When the hole opened up along the rail, he exploded late,” Bravo said. Approaching the far turn, I was getting a little worried there would be no place to go. “I got shut off at the start, got him to relax nicely behind horses going down the backside. But then Bravo, who has a well-earned reputation as a master on the Monmouth grass, asked the horse to go through a tight opening on the rail and Synchrony complied courageously. When Bravo tried to make his move coming out of the far turn, Synchrony had no place to run. The 5-year-old son of Tapit, who got shut off leaving the gate, raced at the back of the pack under Joe Bravo as Mo Maverick led the field into the far turn while setting pedestrian fractions of :25.56, :49.93 and 1:12.85 on the turf. He overcame a troubled trip and an slow pace to win with authority. Pin Oak Stables’ homebred Synchrony did not disappoint his backers who sent him off as the top choice in the 72nd running of the Grade 3, $100,00 Oceanport Stakes as the 3-5 prohibitive favorite in the field of seven. Name Changer returned $10.40 for a $2 wager and increased his earnings to $382, 550. The horse showed how much heart he had to fend off the horse on my outside.” “When I saw the horses in front of me battling for the lead, I knew I had a good chance of winning the race. ![]() “It was important for me to break him sharp and keep him in a forwardly placed position,” said Ortiz. Zanotti, whose sustained drive came up short, got second, five lengths in front of Page McKenney, while Remembering Rita, Let Me Go First and Phat Man followed to the wire. He broke good, maintained his position and everything was cool from there.” This horse has been breaking better than he did in the past. “Today I thought we’d be a little farther back but I thought that with the horses in first (Phat Man) and second (Remembering Rita) early he’d be out there going with them. It was head-scratcher and he was close, so we said we’ll try it because he was going really good before that last race. “I was a little surprised, other than he ran in fractions that were too fast early. “I don’t what happened in his last race,” said trainer Alan Goldberg. With the win, Name Changer made amends for a third-place finish in a Delaware Park stakes race last time out after winning his two previous efforts impressively. But he had to dig in inside the sixteenth pole to hold off a late charge from Zanotti, the 8-5 favorite who was partnered with Jorge Vargas, Jr., to cross the wire 1½ lengths in front in 1:49.56. The Colts Neck Stables homebred, who was bred in Kentucky and is a son of Uncle Mo, overcame being bumped out of the gate to rate kindly behind pacesetters Phat Man and Remembering Rita before engaging the pair on the far turn in the mile and a sixteenth mile effort on the main track.Īs they turned for home, Name Changer put the heat on Phat Man and took over the lead down the lane. In the 40th renewal of the Grade 3, $150,000 Monmouth Cup, one of four graded stakes and five stakes races on the undercard of the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Sunday, Name Changer returned to his winning ways under Eclipse Award winning rider Jose Ortiz.
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