Fittingly, New Jersey-breds are on display this closing Sunday of the 2024 Monmouth Park meet with a pair of $85,000 handicaps for 3-year-olds and up at five furlongs on the turf. Mia’s Crusade looks to win the Pinot Grigio Handicap for fillies and mares for the second consecutive year. Named 2023’s New Jersey champion older mare, the versatile Mia’s Crusade has won statebred stakes races this year on dirt and turf at distances ranging from six furlongs to one mile. Trained by Chuck Spina for Prancing Horse Farm, 5-year-old Mia’s Crusade enters the Pinot Grigio following a third-place finish in the open Regret on dirt July 26 at Monmouth. “She got beat a nose for second,” Spina said of the Regret. “She’s such an honest mare. She gives it her all every time.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Bel Pensiero raced twice since finishing second in the Regret, placing fifth in the open Incredible Revenge over this course and distance Aug. 11 before finishing second two weeks later in the Eleven North at six furlongs on dirt. Trained by Anthony Margotta Jr., Bel Pensiero should show speed along with rail-drawn Amazing Graces Joy. Bingo’s Birkin, Let Her Run, and Delightful Ava step up in class off wins. Captured Darling, Sea Maiden, and Summer’s Comin complete the field. Joey P. Handicap Monmouth didn’t card the Joey P. Handicap last year, so 2022 winner Smithwick’s Spice seeks a successful title defense for trainer Douglas Nunn. The 8-year-old gelding has been busy this summer, winning the open Select at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf on Aug. 17, then finishing a troubled sixth of nine after drawing the rail in Saratoga’s Harvey Pack 11 days ago. “He’s not a horse that wants to be down inside, and he never got out,” Nunn said of the Harvey Pack. Jockey Jorge Gonzalez “tried to get him out all the way. From the quarter pole all the way to the sixteenth pole, he was in tight and even got checked late. I think we didn’t get to see the best of him.” Spina and Prancing Horse counter with the talented There Are No Words, who cuts back to this sharp sprint after finishing second in the open Red Bank racing one mile Sept. 2. Three times stakes-placed going two turns this meet, There Are No Words boasts strong Beyer Speed Figures. “This is not his ideal distance, but it’s the end of the meet and a Jersey-bred pot, so we’re going to take a shot,” Spina said. “He’s quick enough that he can at least stay within range.” Venerable 9-year-old Golden Brown hasn’t won since the 2021 edition of the Joey P., but the Grade 3 winner always deserves respect. Multiple stakes winner Speaking might prefer dirt, but he’s unexposed on grass with his lone turf start coming in a two-turn route at Gulfstream in 2023. Like What I See, Grouch, Lemon Creek Louie, Gold Trust, Ohana Empire, and Bingo’s Boy also entered. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.