Breeders' Cup Winner Wrote Entered in Monmouth Stakes
Oceanport, New Jersey will join Ireland, Kentucky, Dubai, and Great Britain on the list of places where 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Wrote has competed over the course of his career when he goes postward in the $200,000 Monmouth Stakes.
Wrote has finished in the money in seven of his nine career starts, while keeping solid company in Group events such as the U.A.E Derby, the 2000 Irish Guineas, and the St. James’s Palace Stakes. A 4-year-old Irish bred colt by High Chaparral, Wrote has earned over $800,000 in his career, and trainer Andrew Mitchell believes that Wrote, who came under Mitchell’s care just over a month ago after he was privately purchased, can add to that number in the mile and an eighth Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes on Sunday.
“We worked him at the beginning of the week and he looks really good and healthy,” Mitchell said of Wrote, who breezed four furlongs in :54 on Tuesday. “He’s a Breeder’s Cup winner and he’s doing everything I ask effortlessly, so we really like where we are with him and we like our chances in the Monmouth.”
As for tactics, Mitchell is sure of his plan for Sunday’s $200,000 turf test.
“We hope to break well and sit right off the pace, about three back, inside off the rail,” Mitchell said. “That’s right where he likes to be.”
Monmouth Park’s 2012 leading jockey Elvis Trujillo gets the call on Wrote for the Monmouth Stakes. The first time team will have to fend off 5-2 morning line favorite Boisterous and jockey John Velazquez who goes for trainer Shug McGaughey.
43RD ANNUAL IRISH FESIVAL AT MONMOUTH ON SUNDAY
The 43rd annual Irish Festival comes to Monmouth Park on Sunday, where patrons will be in for a full day of Irish food, music, and culture. Festivities begin at 11 a.m. with a traditional Irish mass in the Monmouth Café.
Throughout the day fans can enjoy Ceili and Irish step dancing, a pipe and drum competition, food and craft vendors, live Irish music, and a human horse race where runners will bolt out of the starting gate and race on the track to raise money for charity. There will be plenty of opportunities for family fun as patrons with children can bring them to the Irish Festival’s Kid’s Zone and to Monmouth Park’s family fun day in the picnic area.
Patrons wearing kilts will receive free admission to the festival. Gates open early at 10 a.m.