Monmouth Park’s Iselin Becomes Black Tie Affair

OCEANPORT, N.J. —  Black Tie Affair, who hadn’t run in any of the American Championship Racing Series events this year, won his first Sunday, beating Southland-based Farma Way to the wire by a neck in the $500,000 Phillip H. Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park.

With Pat Day up, Black Tie Affair, a 5-year-old son of Miswaki, refused to fade, losing the lead to Farma Way near the top of the stretch, regaining it in the run to the wire and surviving a stewards’ inquiry and an objection lodged by jockey Chris McCarron, the rider of Farma Way, for alleged interference.

The winning time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:47 4/5. Black Tie Affair paid $10.20, $3.80 and $3.80 and earned $300,000.

Farma Way earned seven ACRS points, moving into a tie for the lead with Festin, who skipped this event, with one race to run. The final race will be the Woodward on Sept. 15 at Belmont. The series winner will earn $750,000.