Get Serious put his competitive spirit on display once again on Saturday in the Grade 3 $100,000 Cliffhanger Stakes at Monmouth Park when he refused to throw in the towel after losing a protracted battle on the front end, coming on again with the closers in the late stages and missing second money by only a neck.
Off well to go one mile over the firm Monmouth turf under regular rider Pablo Fragoso, the frontrunning 8-year-old City Zip gelding took command in the two-path before field entered the clubhouse turn. Tune Me In kept close company to his inside, at first pressing the pace just neck behind and then racing stride-for-stride with Get Serious down the backstretch run and through the turn.
Tune Me In shook free at the top of the lane, but even though Salto and Lentenor were beginning to stage rallies, Get Serious was not done. After falling back by two lengths, he dug in and came within a neck of collaring the late-charging Salto, who finished one length behind winner Tune Me In in second. After six furlongs in 1:10.76, the final time for the mile was 1:33.96.
Get Serious, who has earned $1,123,091 and sits in seventeenth position on the roster of all-time top New York-bred earners, is a five-time Grade 3 winner at Monmouth Park (Red Bank three times, Oceanport Stakes and Monmouth Stakes). He has placed in five other graded stakes, including the Monmouth Stakes this year when it was upgraded to Grade 2. On three separate occasions he set turf course records for one mile at Monmouth.
Winless last year while suffering from a stubborn and lingering infection in his leg, Get Serious has started five times this year, winning the Grade 3 Red Bank and placing in three graded events.
Trainer John Forbes, who co-owns the gelding with James M. Dinan chalks up Get Serious’s longevity and success to good breeding and a good start in life. “He’s just a really sturdy horse,” said Forbes. “You have to credit City Zip and the mare, but Wayne and Susan Chatfield-Taylor at Morgan’s Ford Farm in Virginia bred him and they raised him right. They raise a better horse than just about anybody. They raise good-boned and sturdy horses with a will to win.”
Bred when City Zip stood in New York at Contemporary Stallions (2002-2004), Get Serious was foaled at Gallagher’s Stud. Forbes purchased him for $130,000 as the top-priced New York-bred at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic’s 2005 October Select yearling sale.
The dam of Get Serious, Java Gal, is a Java Gold mare bred by Gallagher’s Stud and purchased by Morgan’s Ford Farm for $25,000 at Keeneland’s 1999 November sale. Java Gal is a half-sister to Gallagher’s homebred Allez Milord ($362,913), a Grade 1 winner in California, champion in Germany, multiple group winner in England, and Group 1 runner-up in Japan.
Java Gal produced three other six-figure-earners, including stakes-placed Java Warrior by Cape Town ($104,247) and Gourmet Japan by Langfuhr ($249,525).
