Redistricting might be a top-class middle-distance turf horse, but even in June of his 5-year-old season, that’s still hard to say.
Two years into his career, Redistricting has raced only eight times. His ninth start comes Saturday at Monmouth Park in the $150,000 Monmouth Stakes. A rainy forecast means the Monmouth turf easily could be softer than firm. And firm, trainer Chad Brown knows, is what Redistricting wants. But Brown said he could keep the horse in the 1 1/8-mile Monmouth even over a wet course.
“I might have to at this point. He needs to run,” Brown said.
Redistricting was supposed to start June 7 in a Saratoga allowance race that got rained onto dirt. It was another lost chance for Brown to get a real line on what kind of horse he’s dealing with.
“He’s had some tough circumstances that have muddied the waters,” Brown said.
Redistricting, a sharp debut winner in the summer of 2023, was pulled up that December in the Hollywood Derby, and in his first start after that race, the Knickerbocker last October, a troubled trip ruined his chances.
His next start, the Seabiscuit at Del Mar, suggested star potential. Just 10th at the stretch call, Redistricting ran his final half-furlong in closer to five seconds than six and finished second by a neck.
Next came off a four-month break in the paceless Muniz Memorial in March at Fair Grounds that produced a sixth-place finish. On Derby Day at Churchill Downs, Redistricting was sixth again, probably not able to produce his best over a wet course in the Grade 1 Turf Classic.
Redistricting, the mount of Flavien Prat, probably wins the Monmouth even if he merely runs back to his Turf Classic, where he nearly led at the stretch call before finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind his victorious stablemate, Spirit of St Louis.
Nine were entered in the Monmouth. Brooklyn Guy starts only if the race is rained onto dirt, while Master Piece is expected to be scratched in favor of a Delaware Park race Saturday.
The race drew Otago, who won the Cliff Hanger last month at Monmouth, as well as Cliff Hanger runner-up Highestdistinction and fifth-place Signator. Second choice at 2-1, Signator ran flat over a course rated good, while Otago rallied late to beat Highestdistinction by a half-length. Among the three, Signator would hold the most appeal on firm going.
French import Atlast makes his North American debut for trainer Graham Motion. Atlast held poor turf form earlier this season while racing overseas, but could get a boost on soft going.
Kingmax is the one with competitive form, but he hasn’t raced since March 2024. Kingmax began his career in England and won a pair of Monmouth turf starts for trainer Jorge Delgado after being imported, but he, like Redistricting, probably wouldn’t love a soft course.
Eatontown Stakes
Maggie Go’s Argentine form makes her the horse to beat in the Grade 3, $150,000 Eatontown, and her new trainer, Chad Brown, expects that form to carry to North America.
“She trains good. I’ve been impressed,” Brown said.
Maggie Go, a 4-year-old on Southern Hemisphere time, made five starts in Argentina, winning a Group 2 and finishing second in Argentina’s version of the 1000 Guineas, the Group 1 Estrellas Juvenile Fillies. No match for the late-closing winner, Maggie Go showed positional pace in that one-mile contest and stayed on decently, winning a photo for place.
Her Group 2 score came on a course termed heavy, and wet Monmouth grass might not trouble the filly. Nor, Brown said, would a move to the main track.
“She trains equally good on dirt,” he said.
Brown has a second runner in the 1 1/16-mile Eatontown, Whiskey Decision, another filly who has yet to start for him. Whiskey Decision hasn’t raced since November and appeared to tail off in the autumn after a solid, listed stakes-level summer turf campaign.
While Maggie Go’s a tough read, Five Towns stands a better chance than Whiskey Decision. The Graham Motion-trained mare has taken five straight losses, but all of them – save, perhaps, the Gallorette 13 months ago over a boggy Pimlico course – would make her competitive in the Eatontown. She’s a level above horses like Ozara and Damaso, those two separated by a nose when they met in January at Tampa Bay Downs.
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