Monmouth: First Mission will be heavy betting choice in Iselin

Four-time graded-stakes winner First Mission is the 1-2 morning-line favorite among the six older horses entered for Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth Park.

The two-turn, 1 1/16-mile race is the first leg of a 50-cent Pick 5. The Iselin at 2:51 p.m. EDT is the fifth of nine races on Saturday’s card which starts at 12:50 p.m.

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Making his first trip to the Jersey Shore track for Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox, First Mission is coming off a third-place finish June 28 in the Stephen Foster (G1) at Churchill Downs. Two starts back, the 5-year-old Street Sense horse who has earned $2,159,270 won the Oaklawn Handicap (G2). The Iselin represents a 110-yard cutback from those two races for First Mission, who will be ridden from the outside post by Florent Géroux.

Monmouth Cup (G3) winner Surface to Air (9-2), last-out Parx allowance victor Offaly Cool (5-1), millionaire 7-year-old Repo Rocks (6-1), 2024 Prince of Wales winner Vitality (12-1) and local allowance victor Gran Yaco (30-1) also are in the Iselin field.