2001 Monmouth Park Final Standings

72 Days Of Racing 

05/26/01- 09/02/01

Above: Sea Of Tranquility (shadow roll) just gets  up to beat Thistyranthasclass in the $50,000 Jersey Breeders' Handicap.

© 2001 PHOTO BY ORR.com/MELISSA MOJICA

POINT GIVEN

2001 WINNER

$1.5 MILLION HASKELL INVITATIONAL HANDICAP

GRADE I 

OWNER: THE THOROUGHBRED CORPORATION

TRAINER: BOB BAFFERT

JOCKEY: GARY STEVENS

Point Given earns a hard fought victory in The Grade I Haskell Invitational Handicap on August 5, 2001.

© 2001 PHOTO BY ORR.com/MELISSA MOJICA

POINT GIVEN WINS THE GRADE I HASKELL INVITATIONAL HANDICAP

Oceanport, New Jersey

August 5, 2001

Haskell Review

In a race that finally lived up to its true billing, six three-year-old colts took to the track in Sunday’s Grade I Haskell Invitational.  At first glance, the toteboard may have persuaded the casual observer to think that this race would be over before the gates even opened.  The record crowd of 47,127 sent Point Given off as the 1/5 betting favorite as most expected to see the “Big Red Train” make his usual patented move at the three-eighths pole and draw off to destroy the field and take the purse back to California.  However, someone forgot to tell the connections of both Touch Tone and Burning Roma.  Both young horses skipped the Triple Crown and are just getting ready to step onto the national/international stage.   John Ward’s, Hero’s Tribute, also was expected to contend after a couple of really good efforts in New York.  After the start of the race the Ronny Werner trained, Touch Tone, took the early lead and never looked back posting fractions of 22:3, 46:4, 1:11:1 and 1:36:2 before hooking up with eventual winner Point Given in deep stretch.  The resilient front running effort of Touch Tone combined with the progressing stalking style of Burning Roma proved to be a double team that almost did Point Given in.  In the turn, after Point Given had made a closing move down the backside, Touch Tone seemed to pull away again by more than a length in the turn leaving the Belmont champ looking quite vulnerable, almost beaten, before the field entered the home stretch.  Jockey Gary Stevens finally rallied Point Given in mid-stretch and wore down the leader and resisted the late driving move made by B