“STONETASTIC” WINS THE REGRET

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Stonetastic rebounded from an uncharacteristic performance in her last race to score an easy victory in the $80,500 Regret Stakes at Monmouth Park on Saturday.

Click here to read article from DRF

With Paco Lopez back aboard, Stonetastic outsprinted Bustin Out for the early lead, and then simply galloped off to 6 3/4-length win. The Monmouth strip was playing quick on Saturday – a New Jersey-bred maiden sprint winner went a quarter-mile in 21.90 seconds and a half in 44.79 – but Stonetastic effortlessly laid down fractions of 21.68, 43.69, and 55.64 en route to a final six-furlong clocking of 1:08.37.

Stonetastic paid $2.80 as a heavy favorite in the five-horse field. Bustin Out held on for second while finishing 3 1/4 lengths ahead of third-place Sky Gold.

Trainer Kelly Breen said he will now point Stonetastic to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, a race in which she finished eighth last year and fourth in 2014. The $1 million Filly and Mare Sprint will be held Nov. 5 at Santa Anita – the same location as in 2014.

Stonetastic, a 5-year-old mare owned by Stoneway Farm, is a two-time Grade 2 winner, having won the Inside Information at Gulfstream Park in March and the Prioress at Saratoga in 2014. She finished second in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on May 7.

“This will most likely be her last year,” Breen said. “It would be nice for both her and for me to get her a Grade 1 win. I’ve only won one myself.”

Breen won the Belmont Stakes with Ruler On Ice in 2011.

Breen said he had several races under consideration as a bridge to the Breeders’ Cup. He realizes that Stonetastic will have to go a furlong farther in the Breeders’ Cup than she did on Saturday.

“The key is to stretch her out to seven-eighths,” Breen said. “She can’t go 43 and change and get the extra furlong.”

In her start prior to the Regret, Stonetastic faded to fourth in a seven-furlong no-conditions allowance at Parx after going way too fast early. Stonetastic was pushed along on the lead by Disco Chick, a fast filly in her own right, that day while cutting out splits of 21.57 and 43.62. She was beaten 2 3/4 lengths while weakening in the final furlong.

Stonetastic won the Inside Information at seven furlongs but overall is 1 for 7 at the distance. She certainly could have gotten another furlong Saturday as Lopez was sitting still on her in the stretch.