Monmouth Park: Takethemoneyhoney takes Serena’s Song
Trainer Michael Moore already had enough concerns heading into the Serena’s Song Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday with his speedy filly Takethemoneyhoney.
She was trying stakes company for the first time, going two turns for the first time and facing a Grade 1 winner in the four-horse field.
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Then came some added angst: A blanket finish that separated three horses at the wire by a nose and a neck.
In the end Takethemoneyhoney passed all of those tests, digging in grimly to hold off Catherine Wheel in the $100,000 feature race, earning a free entry and start fees to the Grade 3, $500,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes on the July 19 Haskell Stakes day card in the process.
Power Squeeze, the 1-2 favorite, lacked the requisite stretch punch and finished third, her fifth straight loss since winning the Alabama Stakes (G1) at Saratoga on Aug. 17. With jockey Javier Castellano urging her three wide heading into the final turnk she appeared to have momentum before coming up short.
“Obviously going two turns for the first time and facing stakes company for the first time were concerns,” Moore said. “But this was kind of the next step for her. She won the two-other-than in Maryland really easy. We could have gone back in that again, and she would have been 1-9. We chose here to take a shot to see how she handled it.”
Moore said the race for which she qualified seemed a logical next step for Takethemoneyhoney.
“The Molly Pitcher has to be a possibility now,” he said. “Graded stakes is the next step, you would think.”
The 4-year-old Maryland-bred daughter of Golden Lad owned by Kasey K, Final Turn and Michael Day improved to 4-for-5 lifetime. Takethemoneyhoney’s lone defeat came by a nose to Chad Brown-trained Catherine Wheel at Aqueduct on March 15.
As is her custom, Takethemoneyhoney broke alertly for jockey Elíseo Ruiz and led the compact field for the entirety of the mile-and-70-yard stakes race, going fractions of 24.09, 48.76 and 1:13.12 on the way to a winning time of 1:42.19.
“I was a little worried about her going two turns and carrying her speed,” said Ruiz, who recorded his first stakes win at Monmouth Park. “But I was able to get her relax and slow it down a little, and then I was waiting to see what she had left. She had just enough left. She’s a really good filly. You can tell she is learning every race. I think he wants to run even more. I want to see where she takes me next.”
Takethemoneyhoney paid $6.00 to win.
“We always thought this filly could run,” said Moore. “When she won her first race by 13 1/2 lengths, I remember thinking I didn’t know she could run like that. Some horses have the ability but not the gameness. She has it all.”