Race Day Update

Brave Monarch came out of his last breeze in great shape. Graham received some intel from the Tampa Bay Downs racing secretary that the chances of us drawing into the maiden special weight on the 18th are very slim. This is based on what is called the "preference system." Since our colt did not arrive to Florida until early January, he has a lower preference than horses who shipped south earlier in the season, and thus have their registration papers on file at an earlier date. Races at Tampa are overfilling frequently, and there are often full fields. The racing secretary did indicate that there is a very good chance we draw into the next three-year-old maiden special weight. We want to give this colt every opportunity to run well in his debut and are very keen on running at Tampa versus Gulfstream. The competition at Gulfstream tends to be much tougher, and we think he'll be much more competitive at this venue.

Accordingly, Graham would like to train Brave Monarch up to the maiden special weight going 1 mile on the turf on Friday, March 4th at Tampa Bay Downs. Graham said, "It's unfortunate that we won't get into this Friday's race, but another couple works can only help him. I plan to breeze him on the turf tomorrow morning at Palm Meadows. We'll take dead aim on this next race at Tampa with him."

Once we ship back north in April or May, we'll have many more options to run with Parx, Delaware, Monmouth, etc. opening their turf courses.

We enter for the race on Wednesday, March 2nd.