Dance N Denae may not have looked like a good claim when she finished a dull 8th the day we claimed her, but we always say it's not how they run nearly as much as how they come back to the barn. That was proven once again with Dance N Denae, who followed up a good 2nd in her Kenwood Racing debut on June 26th, with an impressive win on July 17th at Monmouth Park. The race had originally been scheduled for the grass and in truth, we were a bit concerned when it was taken off the turf due to heavy rains the night before. The filly had been training very well and had shown decent past dirt form, but she does appear to be a better grass horse. When old friend Awesome Challenge (claimed from us off a thrilling win opening weekend at Monmouth) made the lead on her early and Dance N Denae found herself in tight on the rail for most of the race, it didn't look good, but jockey Jose Ferrer had a lot of horse all the way. When Awesome Challenge began to tire turning for home, he made a dramatic move to grab the lead from the inside. She quickly opening up a large lead and coasted to the wire almost 2 lengths to the good of a late closing runner and far ahead of the remainder of the field.

This is a nice filly who runs on both dirt and turf. She's turned into a fine claim and we think the best is yet to come here. A hearty congratulations to all the members of our New Jersey-based active racing group. With this filly and Little Cherie who we claimed recently and the NJ-bred Silver Bouquet, we have a lot to look forward the rest of the racing season at Monmouth.