EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Trainer Jose Sanchez’s first foray into graded stakes company didn’t go quite as he would have hoped, but the 51-year-old said he was able to take away some valuable lessons from having tried.

Jersey-bred J J Zo Zo, who cruised to an 8½-length win in the Smoke Glacken Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sept. 7 for Sanchez’s first career stakes win, was a tiring sixth in last Saturday’s Grade 1 Champagne Stakes for 2-year-olds during the Belmont at Aqueduct meet.

“It was a learning experience,” said Sanchez, who will send out two starters on Saturday night’s Monmouth-at-Meadowlands card. “My first time in a graded race and it happened to be a Grade 1. I think the distance was against him. We didn’t know if he wanted to go a distance. We found out he probably doesn’t. So we’ll go back to sprinting with him.

“The company was too tough for him as well. It was something we will learn from. There were some nice 2-year-olds in there who will go on to win graded stakes.”

Even with the disappointment of last Saturday, Sanchez is still in “pinch-me” mode with the way the year has gone for him.

After taking a break from training last year, working in Ocala, Fla., and then landing a job as an assistant to trainer Phil Antonacci, Sanchez returned with an eight-horse stable this year. He had 10 winners from 30 starters at Monmouth Park – “My best meet ever,” he said – and is winning at a 34 percent clip with 11 winners from 32 starters overall.

He’d never had a starter in a stakes race before this year in a career that began in 2016, with the Champagne marking his fourth stakes try in 2024.

“The whole year has been a nice experience,” said Sanchez. “Honestly, I never thought I would be running in stakes races when I decided to come back to training this year. I was super pleased with the way things went at Monmouth Park this year. I never thought I would do that well.

“To have this success, with this winning percentage, does surprise me. For the amount of horses I have, and not having a lot of starters, having that percentage is amazing.”

If all of this is new to Sanchez as a trainer, it’s not as if the Chihuahua, Mexico, native doesn’t know quality horses. After coming to the United States in 1991, he worked for Hall of Fame trainer Hubert “Sonny” Hine from 1994-98 and was the groom for Hall of Famer runner Skip Away.

A week after the Champagne try, though, it’s back to the reality of what most of his stable is about. He has I Want Ruffles going in a maiden $10,000 claimer in Saturday’s first race and then Bingo’s Espresso, riding a two-race turf sprint winning streak, in the allowance optional claimer for state-breds in the fifth race.

I Want Ruffles will be making her turf debut after a pair of seconds and a third in her last three starts sprinting on the dirt.

“I have been trying to get her on the turf. I think she is much better on the turf,” Sanchez said. “I’m expecting her to take a step up. The (one-mile) distance is going to benefit her too, I think.”

Bingo’s Espresso will look to stretch out to a mile in a field of 11 fillies and mares, three and up, in the fifth race.

“Last time out she was pretty impressive, the way she did it,” he said. “She came out of that race in great shape. I think she is going into this race pretty sharp.”