Hawkish among nominations to Monmouth's Cliff Hanger Stakes
Defending race winner Force the Pass, who has a Grade 1 victory to his credit,
and Grade 2 winner Hawkish were among 23 nominations for the $100,000 Cliff Hanger Stakes, the feature on Monmouth Park’s opening day card on Saturday May 4.
The 41st running of the Cliff
Hanger will be contested at a mile on the turf as Monmouth Park’s 74th season
of racing gets underway on Kentucky Derby Day. The track will have a special
post time of 1:45 for the opening card.
Force the Pass, with lifetime earnings of
$1,314,154, captured the Cliff Hanger Stakes last year by a nose over Irish
Strait. Owned by Colts Neck Stables, LLC, Force the Pass is now trained by
Jorge Duarte, Jr. after previously being under the care of Alan Goldberg.
The 7-year-old has not raced since September.
In 2015 he won the Grade 1 Belmont Derby.
Hawkish, trained by James Toner, is coming off
a sharp 2019 debut that saw the 4-year-old gelding finish second by a
half-length in Grade 3 Appleton Stakes at Gulfstream Park on March 29. He
captured the Grade 2 Penn Mile last year.
Projected, a Grade 2 winner who was a close
third in the Grade 2 Monmouth Stakes last year; Blacktype, just $26,665 shy of
becoming a millionaire; Grade 3 winner Golden Brown, fifth in last year’s Grade
1 Haskell Invitational. and Mo Maverick, winner of the 2017 Lamplighter Stakes
at Monmouth Park, are among the other notable horses nominated.
Monmouth Park’s 61-day meet will feature 64
stakes races (12 graded) worth $7.1 million and will offer a daily purse
average of approximately $500,000.
The TVG.com Haskell Invitational, which
annually attracts the sport’s top 3-year-olds, again serves as the highlight of
the racing calendar. The Haskell Invitational is moving from its traditional
Sunday slot to Saturday, July 20, and anchors a card with six stakes races that
day.
The racing schedule features four additional
“bundled stakes” days, with four stakes races set for the May 25, June 22,
Sept. 1 and Sept. 28 cards. The Grade 1 United Nations tops the June 22
program.
The 17th annual New Jersey
Thoroughbred Festival, which features three stakes races, will take place Aug.
25.
The full list of horses nominated to Cliff Hanger Stakes:
Abiding Star, Awesome Saturday, Black Tide, Blacktype, Can'thelpbelieving, Cheyenne’s Colonel, Dover Cliffs, Dundalk, Force the Pass, Ghost Hunter, Golden Brown, Gucci Factor, Harpoon, Hawkish, Hit It Once More, Live Fast Brown, Lunaire, Mead Hall, Mo Maverick, Projected, Sand Dancer, Twenty Four Seven, Up the Ante