The Eatontown Stakes (Grade 3)- $150.000 Purse
MTH- For Fillies and Mares Three Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Turf
June 14, 2025

We’ll see a field of seven fillies and mares in the 19th running of the Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes. This turf race has been a Grade 3 since inception and has seen it’s $150.000 remain mostly constant since the beginning, although there was a brief period where it was only $100.000. Last year’s winner, Maletto’s Poetic Panther, used the race to catapult into even bigger races, and she would win the Diana up at the Spa a month later. Ultimately, she’d run respectably in the BC Fillies and Mares Turf and continues to be successful now. That’s certainly an act that all seven of our runners would love to follow. Let’s meet them now:

1- Maryannforme (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by A Concepcion)- Began her career running for Nakamura Stables, and there was a time that trainer put her into a Grade 3 as a two-year-old, so the potential has always been there. However, after that, most of her career had been in overnights, including a stretch of mid-level claimers. Winplace began to bring her forward, though sold her in private sales for $75.000 to TwinTowersRacing. She’s not a massive success story yet with her new trainer, but he certainly intends for her to be. Ran third in the Grade 3 Beaugay, on soft turf, but that was third in a dead heat, in a five-horse field, where she was still beaten by four lengths. We’ll get a clearer picture about her after this one.

2- Star Light Beauty (Threshold, ridden by Sa Camacho)- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen horses finish in a dead heat in one race and in the next start, they start right beside one another. Sure enough, Star Light Beauty was the other horse in that third place Beaugay dead heat, so you can make the same argument that we need this race to see more clearly where she stands this division. Her past doesn’t have the claimers but is similar to Maryannforme in that it was mostly overnights with a prior trainer. Threshold got her in the March auction for $51.000 and has also run his filly twice. Not a success story yet, but the potential is there.

3- When Doves Cry (Big Jd Racing, ridden by J Bravo)- After a strong three-year-old season, When Doves Cry is still looking to hit the board for the first time as a four-year-old. This is her fifth start of the year, and she has not been bad, and comes here off of two fourth place finishes in Grade 3’s. Certainly, no one’s crying over her yet, but the trainer was clearly wanting more from her at this point based on a couple races that she has been in. Likes to come from the back, and perhaps a plan will be to not have her back so far early on.

4- My Princess Em (Bigchief Stables, ridden by C Sutherland)- A five-year-old mare that has only made nine starts for her career. A long layoff of close to two years will always carry the question of what might have been if she raced more, or is she only here now because of that time off? Regardless of that, My Princess Em does a great job of finishing in the top three in some capacity, and with the exception of her last race, when she has not won, she’s been within a length since her return from the layoff. Missed by two last time out in her graded debut, the Grade 3 Royal Heroine Stakes. Likely to be on or near the lead early.

5- Starship Force (Nakamura Stables, ridden by F Jara)- It’s not that easy to get a feel on this horse, as her placement is a bit all over the place in terms of the tracks that she has been running at, and her results are inconsistent. Her two wins in the last seven months have come at BTP and TAM, so not something that’s going to intimidate her rivals here. But she’s also been bad at BTP in January but good at GP a month later. Her last two races have come at LS, and seen her run second, as well as last in a four horse field. Nothing would surprise me with her here.

6- Reorganize (Czech Out Farms, ridden by D Davis)- There’s plenty to like with this filly and it starts with her last race, when she picked up the victory in the Grade 3 Gallorette at PIM last month. The conditions of that race are the same as this, so more of the same should get the job done with her, and there’s no reason to think that she cannot duplicate that effort. Sure, that win means that she will carry two more pounds than the rest of the field, and that should be considered, but I don’t believe it’s a death sentence to keep her out of the winner’s circle. When running exactly this distance on the turf, she has four wins in six starts. One of the races that she didn’t win of that was the Pegasus F & M Turf. This isn’t the Pegasus. She’s the one to beat, extra weight and all.

7- Yesterdays Queen (Wood Racing Stable, ridden by I Castillo)- In January, Wood Racing Stable claimed this filly for a mere $5.000, but wasn’t convinced with her right away, as she ran for a $10.000 tag a start later. She won that, and then completely demoralized a four-horse field in a LS starter allowance, winning by seven lengths on soft going. Now, she will get the test of her life, and a strong work at AQU likely helped that decision. May have just been waiting for an opportunity to run distances like this.

Prediction: 6-4-2-7

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES