EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – With Prime To Go in the midst of a form spree heading into Saturday night’s featured $42,000 allowance during the all-turf Monmouth-at-Meadowlands meet, trainer Jorge Duarte, Jr., is looking for the 4-year-old colt to kick off a strong finish to the racing year after a relatively quiet spring and summer.

The Colts Neck Stables homebred heads into the one-mile grass race with two wins, two seconds and a fourth in his five starts this year. He will take on 10 other 3-year-olds and up in the fifth race on the six-race card.

“I think he’s just a little bit of a late bloomer,” said Duarte. “He seems to have come into good form. We got him going early and he seemed to get some confidence. He ran second a couple of times to Naptown (fourth in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 13), who is a nice horse. So we’re hoping for another good race from him.”

The Kentucky-bred son of More Than Ready, winless at 2 and 1-for-6 last year, will be at his fifth different track in his sixth start this year. His entire 14-race career has been on the grass.

“We’ve got to beat Chad Brown’s horse (Investment Mandate). After that it’s a pretty wide-open race,” Duarte said.

A strong showing by Prime To Go is exactly what Duarte is looking for as he prepares for a big finish to the racing year.

He won just three races from 28 starts during the Monmouth Park meet, the fewest since he became a regular at the Jersey Shore track in 2019, but was 7-for-34 at Colonial Downs.

“We split the horses between Monmouth Park and Colonial this year,” he said. “It was the kind of year where a lot of races didn’t go on the turf at Monmouth. We didn’t run at Saratoga this year so it was basically Monmouth Park and Colonial this year.”

With 31 babies, the majority of whom are just getting ready to run, Duarte is optimistic the fall will be a productive one.

“We have a lot of 2-year-olds coming up – a lot of interesting 2-year-olds,” he said. “We’ll have some action the rest of the year. Most of the babies are just ready now. Now that we’re in the fall they’re more mature and ready to go.”

It’s not as if the other horses that Duarte oversees haven’t been running. There have been a lot of seconds and thirds in stakes races this year.

Outrunner was third in the Grade 3 Old Dominion Derby at Colonial after finishing second in the Tale of the Cat Stakes at Monmouth Park. Antisocial was second in the Grade 2 Secretariat Stakes and fourth in the Grade 1 Ainsworth Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs. Channel the Music was third in the Sapling Stakes and Subrogate was second in the Mr. Prospector Stakes.

The only uncertainty going forward for Duarte is where his 2-year-olds will be racing in the winter.

“We’re looking at Turfway, Fair Grounds and maybe Gulfstream,” Duarte said. “I think we will send 20 to Turfway and 15 to 20 to Fair Grounds or Gulfstream and we will lay up another 13 or so that have been racing during the year so they get some time off.

“We’ve got a lot of action going from here on out. I’m looking forward to it.”