As disappointed as trainer Mark Hennig was in Gun Song’s performance in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes in her last start, he can point to two reasons for the 3-year-old filly’s poor showing fresh off what had been the best race of her career.

“The first thing is the quality of the field (superstar Thorpedo Anna won the race),” said Henning. “Two, I probably ran her back a little too quickly (three weeks) off a big effort.

“In hindsight I wish I hadn’t. She’s physically fine, so we’ll see how she is this time.”

“This time” is Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Monmouth Oaks at Monmouth Park, with the mile and a sixteenth feature having attracted a field of eight 3-year-old fillies.

While three of the fillies entered are graded stakes placed (the Todd Pletcher-trained Scalable, Regaled and Indiana Oaks runner-up Little Jamie), Gun Song is the lone graded stakes winner in the field, having captured the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico on May 17.

The Kentucky-bred daughter of Gun Runner-Nicole H by Mr. Greeley heads into the Monmouth Oaks off a 40-day layoff after her last-place Acorn finish.

“This spacing suits her better than what we did last time,” said Hennig.

Purchased for $400,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company March Sale for 2-Year-Olds In Training by R. Lee Lewis, Gun Song has had a busy campaign with five starts and two wins already this year. She was fourth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, a race won by Power Squeeze, prior to her breakout performance in the Black-Eyed Susan.

Little Jamie, trained by Robert Medina and coming off a near-miss in the Indiana Oaks in her last start; Regaled, third in the Delaware Oaks to Power Squeeze and Scalable, coming off a win at a mile and a sixteenth in an optional $100,000 claimer at Churchill Downs, loom as formidable opponents.

“We need to respect everyone in the race,” said Hennig. “It’s a competitive field. A couple of them ran against Power Squeeze like we did and we know she’s a good filly. Our filly is doing good. We’re looking forward to it.”

Gun Song will ship in from Hennig’s Saratoga base for the race. Julien LeParoux is listed to ride.

For Henning, the important thing is getting Gun Song back to where he knows she can be.

“I’m hoping she can get back on track with this race and we can go from there,” said Hennig. “She is among the best in her crop so we hope she can get back on track and show that.

“But she has always been the type I felt would get better with age, so we’ll see.”