Shopton Lane's a runaway winner in Skip Away Stakes
Racing community gears up for Sunday's Haskell Invitational
Maggi Moss's Shopton Lane took charge out of the gate and never looked back, scoring by two and a half lengths in the $70,000 Skip Away Stakes at Monmouth Park Saturday.

Shopton Lane stopped the timer in 1:44 1/5 for the mile and a sixteenth over a fast track and paid $7.80, $5 and $4.40 across the board as third choice in the field of five. Longshots Judiths Wild Rush and Sinners N Saints filled the next two spots as Gottcha Gold, the even-money favorite, and Indy Wind, second choice at 2-1, were fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Skip Away serves as a prep for Monmouth's $300,000 Philip H. Iselin Breeders' Cup Stakes(G3) to be run on Aug. 16.

Bruce Levine, Monmouth's leading conditioner, trains Shopton Lane, a 4- year-old son of Quiet American who had Jose Lezcano, Monmouth's leading rider, aboard for the first time. Judith's Wild Rush completed the $84.40 exacta and paid $9.20 and $6.20 after finishing nearly two lengths in front of Sinners N Saints, who paid $5.20 to show.

The race was a surprise right from the gate as Shopton Lane, not Gottcha Gold as expected, took command and opened a daylight lead around the first turn. He continued to lead through fractions of :23 1/5, :46 1/5 and 1:10 3/5 and was never seriously threatened to the wire.

"I knew my horse has early speed, so I just went to the front from the gate," Lezcano said. "Gottcha Gold didn't go for the early lead, so I was able to get my horse to relax up front. He turned it on for me when I asked him."

In the day's second feature, Fellow Crasher rallied in the stretch to capture the $65,000 Tyro Stakes for 2-year-olds, a prep for the Grade 3 Sapling to be run here on Aug. 31, Fellow Crasher ranged up into contention entering the stretch and zoomed past the front-running 1-10 favorite Notonthesamepage at the eighth pole, drawing off to score by two and a half lengths.

The winner, trained by Anthony Dutrow and ridden by Joe Bravo, raced the five and a half furlongs over a fast main track in 1:03 1/5 and paid $11 to win as second choice in the field of three 2-year-olds. Rapid Redux was 12 1/4 lengths farther behind in third.

Notonthesamepage showed his considerable speed early, clipping off fractions of :21 4/5 and :44 2/5. Bravo moved Fellow Crasher into striking position rounding the turn and once straightened away, pounced on the leader and then drew off in the final sixteenth.

This was the second straight win for Fellow Crasher, a son of Graeme Hall who broke his maiden at Philly Park on July 6. He is owned by the partnership of Dubb, Grant & Bayard.

"I didn't know what I was sitting on until the gates opened," Bravo said. "He broke well and relaxed for a bit. He really turned it on for me in the lane when I got into him. This is a really nice colt."

No one picked all six winners in the 60-Minute Six wager, and there will be a carryover of $46,881 into next Saturday's 60-Minute Six pool.

Local pick Nistle's Crunch hopes to steal Big Brown's spotlight

Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner who will kick off the second half of his season in the $1 million Haskell Invitational Presented by Vonage on Sunday, and Dogwood Stable's Atoned and Alien Farm's Nistle's Crunch all turned in fast breezes Saturday morning.

Big Brown, owned by IEAH Stables and Paul Pompa Jr., zipped six furlongs in 1:10 4/5 at Aqueduct with exercise rider Michelle Nevin aboard. The Rick Dutrow Jr.-trained colt has not started since June 7, when he was pulled up in the Belmont Stakes for his first loss in six career starts. He has been working steadily at Aqueduct since the beginning of July for his comeback race in the Grade 1 Haskell. Kent Desormeaux will ride.

Atoned, trained by Todd Pletcher, drilled a half-mile in :50 flat over the fast Monmouth strip, with blinkers on for the first time. Madeline Sciametta, wife of Pletcher assistant trainer Anthony Sciametta Jr., was aboard.

Clockers noted the Repent colt worked strongly, getting the first quarter in :26 2/5, and the second quarter in :23 3/5. Atoned galloped out five furlongs in a sharp 1:01 3/5, and went six furlongs eased up in 1:16.

"I don't know how much the blinkers helped," Sciametta said. "He always works good. Todd will decide whether he wears them in the Haskell."

The $1 million Haskell Invitational will be a homecoming for Nistle's Crunch. Trained by Ken McPeek, the 2-year-old will be making his first start on native soil in the Haskell, since the New Jersey-bred colt has been doing all his racing to date in Kentucky, Virginia and Florida.

The bay son of Van Nistlerooy, Sam Eye Am, by Island Whirl, was bred by his owners, Michael Harrison and Dr. Alan Furst, and foaled at Joe and Karen Jennings' Walnford Farm in Allentown. Harrison, an attorney who lives in Chester, N.J., and Dr. Furst, a medical practitioner who lives in Harding Township, own the colt under their partnership name of Alien Farm LLC.

The stable name comes not from a positive E.T. sighting but from the first horse the two men owned together, Alien Strike.

"We've been friends for 28 years," said Harrison, who is also president of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association of New Jersey. "We got Alien Strike when she was 2, in 1994, and she was a winner right away and went on to win stakes. She gave us a lot of thrills, especially since it was our first horse. I guess we thought it would always be that easy.

"After that we named the stable for her, and that's how it came to be Alien Farm," he said.

The partners are currently racing a son of Alien Strike - See Morgan First - who broke his maiden at Monmouth in 2004.

The Nistle's Crunch story starts in 1996, when the partners claimed a mare by Henbane named Sammy Ammy from a Monmouth maiden race for $32,000. The mare went on to win twice, and was retired and bred to Island Whirl in the spring of 1998.

The resulting foal, the first horse the partners ever bred, was a filly they named Sam Eye Am, who won the Miss Liberty Stakes at the Meadowlands and scored in a Monmouth turf allowance. She was retired in October of 2003 with a 4-3-3 record in 23 starts, and the next spring was bred to Van Nistlerooy in Kentucky.

Sam Eye Am was sent back to New Jersey, where she dropped her foal at Walnford Farm on March 15, 2005.

"We put the foal in a Kentucky yearling sale in 2006," Harrison said. "He

didn't make his reserve, and we bought him back for $53,000.

"He went to Julia Householder in Kentucky to be broken, and her farm is close to Ken McPeek's place," Harrison said, "and that's how Ken became the trainer."

Nistle's Crunch, who was given his confectionary name by Dr. Furst, broke his maiden at second asking at Keeneland last fall. This year, the colt has won on both dirt and turf, and in his last two starts, he was placed in graded stakes on the grass.

"His only bad race this year was the Florida Derby," Harrison said of the March 29 event at Gulfstream where Nistle's Crunch finished 19 lengths behind Big Brown. "He was just too fast early that day and tired."

McPeek is still shopping for a Haskell rider for Nistle's Crunch.

Local hopes will square off in Oceanport Stakes on Haskell Day

The 62nd running of the $150,000 Oceanport Stakes (G3) at a mile and a sixteenth will be one of the highlights of the Haskell Day undercard on Aug. 3, and three Monmouth-based runners are expected to be among the main rivals.

Topping the local contingent is Patricia Generazio's Presious Passion, who is coming off a victory in the Grade 1 United Nations Stakes. Trainer Mary Hartmann said the Oceanport will serve as a prep for Presious Passion's run at another Grade 1 turf event, the $500,000 Sword Dancer Invitational at a mile and a half on August 16 at Saratoga.

Hardacre Farm's Kiss the Kid will be looking for his first graded stakes victory in the Oceanport. The 5-year-old by Lemon Drop Kid finished second in the race last year. Owner-trainer Amy Tarrant's horse was second to upset winner Fagedaboudit Sal in the Bob Harding Stakes here last out.

Trainer Terri Pompay will try to get the 8-year-old Hotstufanthensome back to his stakes-winning ways. The son of Awesome Again, who won the Elkwood Stakes in 2005 and was second in the 2006 running of the Oceanport, made his way back to the winner's circle last out on July 3. It was his sixth victory at Monmouth in 12 lifetime starts here.

Wolfson sending pair for Taylor Made Matchmaker

Florida-based trainer Marty Wolfson, whose horses always bear watching at Monmouth, is sending two fillies up from his Calder base for the $150,000 Taylor Made Matchmaker Stakes (G3), which highlights the Haskell Day undercard.

Wolfson will be represented by Edmund A. Gann's Eclisse and Howard Roberts Farm's Dancing Band in the mile and an eighth turf race for fillies and mares.

Wolfson shipped up Dancing Band to race here last August, and the 5-year-old daughter of Dixieland Band won an allowance race on the Monmouth turf. She was fourth last out in the Grade 3 All Along Breeders' Cup Stakes at Colonial Downs.

Eclisse, a 4-year-old French-bred by Ski Chief, won a Calder turf stakes in May, and last out was second to Lady Digby in the All Along at Colonial Downs.

Wolfson's most recent successful raid came in 2006, when he shipped in Miesque's Approval to win the Grade 3 Red Bank Stakes. Miesque's Approval went on to win the Breeders' Cup Mile and was named champion turf horse of 2006.

The Taylor Made Matchmaker, which will have its 42nd running this year, is a unique event that offers stallion seasons to the first three finishers in addition to prize money. This year, the three Taylor Made Farm stallions are Wildcat Heir, Northern Afleet and Southern Image.