Speaking wins John J. Reilly Handicap for third straight year on Sunday at Monmouth Park

By Tom Luicci —-

SPEAKING SCORES THREE-PEAT IN JOHN J. REILLY HANDICAP

OCEANPORT, N.J. – With Speaking’s three-peat in the John J. Reilly Handicap complete, trainer Eddie Owens had a suggestion for the Monmouth Park racing office for the years to come.

“They may have to call this the Speaking Stakes in the future,” Owens said.

Speaking, a gelded son of Mr Speaker, made a strong case for that, springing to the lead out of the gate and going on to an easy two-length victory over stable mate Great Navigator in Sunday’s $85,000 John J. Reilly Handicap for Jersey-breds.

It’s the third straight year that Speaking has won the John J. Reilly Handicap and marked his fifth win in New Jersey-restricted stakes company. He also won the Smoke Glacken Stakes as a 2-year-old.

“He’s been good a horse for me, but I thought he was capable of being even better,” said Owens. “But he has a bleeding issue and you have to manage that. If not for that issue I think he would have been one of the best sprinters in the country, I really do.”

The expected showdown with race favorite No Cents never materialized when the Cal Lynch runner – second to Speaking in this race the past two years – was left at the gate. He eventually rallied to be third, just a half-length behind Great Navigator.

“I don’t want to take anything away from (No Cents) but we got a pretty easy lead and it worked out for us,” said winning rider Jorge A. Vargas, Jr.

With the win, the 6-year-old Speaking, a Holly Crest Farm homebred, posted his eighth win from 21 career starts. He is 8-for-12 overall at Monmouth Park and 7-for-12 at six furlongs.

The winning time was 1:10.97.

Speaking made short work of his five rivals, bolting to the lead through a :22.83 opening quarter and reaching the half in :46.55.

There was never a serious challenge to him.

“My instructions were to come out of there running,” said Owens. “I know No Cents is fast but he couldn’t catch us and beat us last year or the year before. I’m not taking anything away from No Cents but the only way you are going to beat him is to be ahead of him, not behind him.

“If No Cents would have gone with us and not gotten left I think we would have a learned a little more about how Speaking has come back this year. He had it all his own way today. He ran the way I expected to him to run.

“We’ll look next at the Friendly Lover (on June 8 for Jersey-breds) going a mile.”

Speaking returned $7.40 to win as the third choice in the wagering.

“It feels good, more so because of Eddie,” said Vargas. “I’m a huge fan of Eddie. I like how he works with his horses, and I always try to team up with him. Luckily, we did for this race and it worked out.

“My horse, he breaks. Great Navigator is a great horse, but they were both feeling great. They had the same training schedule, so they were 100 percent ready for this race. I’m just happy I was the winner.”