MONMOUTH: OZARA VICTORIOUS OFF LAYOFF IN THE MISS LIBERTY STAKES

By Tom Luicci —-

OZARA VICTORIOUS OFF LAYOFF IN THE MISS LIBERTY STAKES;

NEAT CAPTURES CLIFF HANGER TO END LONG WINLESS DROUGHT

Third Coast wins Jersey Derby in third career start on Saturday at Monmouth

OCEANPORT, N.J. – With an ambitious 5-year-old campaign planned for Grade 2 winner Ozara, trainer Miguel Clement stressed the importance getting off to a good start in her seasonal debut on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

The daughter of Irish sire Lope de Vega delivered as hoped.

Stalking the pace-setting Long Ago for the majority of the mile and a sixteenth Miss Liberty Stakes, Ozara surged in deep stretch for a half-length victory in the $100,000 co-feature – the first of three turf stakes races on the eight-race card.

Neat, a multiple graded stakes winner, followed that by snapping a nine-race, 21-month drought by rallying for a neck victory over heavily-favored Cosmic Year in the $100,000 Cliff Hanger Stakes with a rail-skimming trip.

Trained by Rob Atras and ridden by Reylu Gutierrez, Neat returned $21.80 in besting seven other 3-year-olds and up in the mile and a sixteenth grass race.

In the $100,000 Jersey Derby at a mile on the turf, Third Coast became a stakes winner in his third career start with a two-length win over Aces Honor. King’s remark, the 9-10 favorite, was third, another three-quarters of a length back.

The winning time was 1:36.18.

Thomas Proctor trains the winner, who was ridden by Jose Lezcano.

“He is turning into a very nice horse. He is a very talented horse and he was determined to win the race,” said Lezcano. “He’s very mature for a horse making his third start.”

Ozara, idle since an off-the-board finish in the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar on Nov. 30, took advantage of just-as-planned ride by Manny Franco for her eighth win in 16 career starts.

Hola Gata was another 2¾ lengths back in third.

“This is absolutely what wanted to see off the layoff,” said Christophe Lorieul, the assistant to trainer Miguel Clement. “She was the class of the race. When I spoke to Miguel right after the race I told him that she was a bit rusty today. When (Franco) asked her at the three-sixteenths pole she did it with class and showed some grit to get by a stubborn horse on the lead.

“This is exactly what we wanted. We were trying to find the best spot for her off the layoff and this was a very good way to come back. She runs well fresh. She’s a star. This was the start of what we hope will be a good, long campaign. There are many options for her ahead so we’ll see what happens next.”

Lorieul said no plans have been firmed up yet but added that the hope was to follow a similar campaign to last year, when four of her final five starts were in graded stakes company.

Sent off at 4-5 in the field of six fillies and mares, Ozara tracked Long Ago through early fractions of :24.71, :49.25, 1:14.30 and 1:37.40 for the opening mile over a firm turf course. Ozara, owned by Cheyenne Stable, finally collared the front-runner just before the wire.

“I expected to be second and third and just off the speed. She broke so sharp,” said Franco, who won the Penn Oaks for Clement with Bandiagara on Friday night at Penn National. “She broke right out of there so I was able to get the position I wanted. She was comfortable the whole way around and I knew I had the best horse under me the entire way.

“She was kind of fresh today. You could tell when she broke on top. I had to take hold of her to get her to relax. She’s just a nice filly. To be honest I had to go all in with her to pass (Long Ago) late in the stretch because that horse was so comfortable on the lead the whole way. But I knew I had the horse. She was the class of the race and I rode her that way.”