Trainer Jorge Duarte, Jr. would prefer not to send at first time starter into stakes race, as he will do with Antisocial in Saturday’s $100,000 Smoke Glacken Stakes at Monmouth Park, but he also understands that timing is everything in Thoroughbred racing.

And the time to get Antisocial to the races, he said, is now.

“It seems like everyone is excited to get him started,” said Duarte, the private trainer for nearby Colts Neck Stables. “I don’t know about winning but we definitely want to get him started and why not at Monmouth Park, which is so close.

“The timing for this race was perfect and hopefully we’ll see what caliber of horse we have.”

The Smoke Glacken, at six furlongs for 2-year-olds, has attracted a field of nine for Monmouth Park’s penultimate weekend of live racing.

Antisocial, a Kentucky-bred colt out of Not This Time-Sociable by Run Away and Hide, was purchased by Colts Neck Stables for $125,000 at the Keeneland 2023 Yearling September Sale.

“He has been training very well,” said Duarte. “The race is what – five maidens and four winners? I think our horse has ability. I can’t say he is going to win or that he will run off the TV screen. But he has been working good enough to take a shot at a stakes race at Monmouth Park.

“For us it’s so nice to race at Monmouth because it’s so close. At worst this will give him good experience.”

Among the winners in the field is Shootersgottashoot, a sharp first-out winner for trainer Mario Serey in maiden special weight company at Monmouth Park on July 28.

Two of the other horses with wins in the field are Jersey-breds – J J Zo Zo, who beat state-breds in his last start on Aug. 25, and the Kelly Breen-trained Royal Performance, a first out winner in state-bred maiden special weight company on July 26.

Noble Force, trained by Jorge Delgado, was a 9½-length winner in maiden special weight company at Monmouth Park on June 21 before faltering and finishing a well-beaten fifth in a $75,000 optional claimer in his last start at Delaware Park on Aug. 24.

Antiosocial is the only first-time starter in the field.

“It’s not something we usually do,” said Duarte, who won the Smoke Glacken with Meru in 2019. “It has kind of been a unique year everywhere with entries and nominations in certain categories being a little lighter than we’ve seen in the past. Maybe it’s part of the transition with racing now.

“So it’s not a crazy thought now. We’ll take a shot and see what happens.”

Duarte said neither the outside post 9 nor a forecast calling for rain were significant factors for his horse.

Admission and parking are free for the final two weekends (and final four live racing days) of the meet.

First race post time is 12:50 p.m.