July 15th was a truly memorable day for a very large and happy group of Kenwood Racing owners at Monmouth Park, with beyond impressive runaway wins for two very promising horses.

First, in race 1, two year old Flat Out filly Harbour Way overcame the dreaded #1 post (bad for any horse, worse for a maiden, worse still for a first-time starter) under an exceptional ride by Albin Jimenez. She broke cleanly, but the favorite broke in front of her and instead of sending her up inside on the rail, Albin eased her outside, let the favorite make the lead, stalked her from the outside, drew even on the turn and after battling head to head down the stretch put her away decisively inside the 16^th pole to win by 3&3/4 widening lengths. She was galloping out even further in front after the race and was much the best. The running time was just 3/10^th of a second slower than the really impressive two year old colt winner of the same race a few races later on the card. This filly has shown talent from day one; we loved her at the sale, Kelly Breen loved the way she’s trained, she was a total pro today, acted like an older horse. She’s bred to run longer too, so the sky really is the limit here. We’ll be looking for a stake for her next start most likely.

View the race chart here.

View the race here.

Then in race 8, Mandel faced a shortened field in a race rained off the turf where he appeared to be the lone speed and took full advantage of it, going right to the front under Jose Ferrer and widening the lead to the point that Jose was literally gearing the horse down at the top of the stretch when he was already 10 lengths in front. He ended up winning by 14 lengths, and it literally could have been 20+ if he’d been asked at all in the stretch. He was training really well for this and trainer Kelly Breen felt it was worth moving him up in class and seeing if he can handle the class jump, which he clearly did.  While everything went right for him today, he clearly is a young horse on the improve, just three and beautifully bred. A lot of fun ahead here too if all keeps going like this.

View the race chart here.

View the race here.

A special congratulations to partner George Katzenberger and his family (his son Matt named Harbour Way), and the many new co-owners in groups #43 (Harbour Way) and #44 (Mandel), as well as of course ALL the owners in both groups!

With these two wins, Kenwood is now hitting at a 29% win rate at Monmouth so far this season (from a limited # of starts), and is at 19% overall for 2018 with wins up and down the east coast and a barn full of promising horses with top trainers in New Jersey, California, Florida and Pennsylvania.