Mr. Jordan faces tough group in G3 Iselin

by | Aug 26, 2016 | Breaking, New Jersey, NJ Racing, Racing

Mr. Jordan

Mr. Jordan won last year’s G3 Pegasus at Monmouth Park. Photo ByTaylor Ejdys/EQUI-PHOTO

From a Monmouth Park release

Mr. Jordan will try to grab his second graded stakes score over the Monmouth Park main track when he enters the gate with five rivals for the Grade 3, $100,000 Phillip H. Iselin Stakes going a mile and an eighth this Saturday.

“He has been doing really good,” said Eddie Plesa Jr., who conditions the horse for David Melin, Leon Ellman and Laurie Plesa. “I don’t think he minded the sloppy track last time, but I expect him to run a big race Saturday.”

Mr. Jordan is making his third start off a 4 ½ month layoff and is exiting a third place finish over a sloppy track behind Grade 1 winner Bradester in the Grade 2 Monmouth Cup on the Haskell Day undercard.

Mr. Jordan made his return to the races off the layoff with a third place finish in the Grade 3 Salvator Mile on July 2.

The 4-year-old gelding by Kantharos out of the Cloud Hopping mare Miss Skeetd was a multiple stakes winner as a 2-year-old with wins in the Smooth Air Stakes and Juvenile Sprint Stakes, both at Gulfstream Park West.

The lone graded stakes win for Mr. Jordan came last year in the Grade 3 Pegasus Stakes when he battled Tekton down the stretch to the head victory. That win led him to a start in last year’s Haskell Invitational against Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Mr. Jordan has worked just once since his start on Haskell Day. It came on Aug. 15 over a fast Monmouth track where he went five furlongs in 1:02 3/5.

“It was mostly just a maintenance work for him,” said Plesa Jr. “He will probably be on the pace or close to it.”

To grab the Iselin title, Mr. Jordan will have to deal with three horses that are entering the race off wins in allowance optional claiming events. Watershed, for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, and the David Jacobson trainee Baccelo both exit wins at Saratoga while Cowboy Rhythm, out of the Todd Pletcher barn, took his first score versus winners over a sloppy Monmouth main track.