Love That Dance Wins Trenton

John Petrini’s Love That Dance charged hard in the lane to post a length-and-a-half win in the $100,000 Trenton Stakes as Hop Skip and Away went from last to first to take the $100,000 Colts Neck Handicap at Monmouth Park on Sunday.

Ridden by Elvis Trujillo, Love That Dance covered the six furlongs over a sloppy main track in 1:09 4/5 and returned $26, $12.80 and $6.40. Longshot All Giving held for second, paying $41 to place and $15 to show. It was another half-length back to Lady Alexander, who returned $3 to show. The exacta in the field of nine fillies and mares paid $716.60.

“I told Elvis to use his judgment,” said winning trainer Ben Perkins Jr. “We were on the outside so just break and go from there. I thought she would run real well today. She got in lighter than the others in there and I know she fits well with these.”

The Trenton Stakes victory was the sixth in 20 starts for Love That Dance, a 4-year-old by Not For Love from the Broad Brush mare Broad Exchange. She has now earned $346,794.

In the Colts Neck, Janet Laszlo and H.C.B. Lindh’s Hop Skip and Away, under jockey Pedro Cotto Jr., sat last early before coming with a powerful wide run to post a length win over odds-on choice Unwritten.

Trained by Joe Pierce Jr., Hop Skip and Away covered the six furlongs over the off going in 1:10 2/5 and returned $23.80, $5.20 and $3.40. Unwritten paid $2.60 and $2.10 and completed the $48.80 exacta. It was another length back to Evenings End in third, who paid $3.60.

Sunday’s stakes win was the sixth in 31 starts for Hop Skip and Away, a 5-year-old gelding by Gold Fever out of Wingspread by Gulch. The New Jersey-bred has now banked $353,233 for his owners.