By admin 
Coming off his best season at Monmouth Park since he became a regular at the Jersey Shore track in 2018, trainer Mike Dini is now focused on sustaining that momentum through the fall and winter.
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That starts with Friday’s opening card of the all-turf Monmouth at Meadowlands meet, where Dini has two horses entered on the six-race program.
He has Funky See Funky Do going in the fourth race and Bee More in the sixth race. He also entered four horses for Saturday’s card.
“The hope is to keep it going,” said the 65-year-old Dini. “I had a few seconds and lost a couple of photos or it would have been an even better meet at Monmouth. If I could have gotten some of my turf horses in it would’ve helped too. I have a lot of turf horses and we dealt with a lot of rain this summer.”
Dini overcame that to win 20 races from 100 starters at the Monmouth Park meet, good for fourth in the trainer standings. He was also third in the owner standings – he owns 15 of the 36 horses he trains – and might have topped the standings if a few of his 19 second-place finishes had been winners. He missed leading owner honors by two wins.
“I had horses that fit the program, as they say,” said Dini, whose previous best year at Monmouth Park was 2024, when he had 15 winners from 136 starters.
He finished five winners behind leading trainer Jorge Delgado at the recently concluded meet, winning the Spruce Fir Stakes with Summer’s Comin – a mare who finished second in the Eleven North Handicap, the Regret Stakes and the Jersey Girl Stakes.
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“It’s just a matter of getting better horses,” he said.
Dini said he never really thought much about contending for leading trainer honors at Monmouth Park this summer “because I ran a lot of horses (13 overall) at Saratoga. Quite a few of them could have won at Monmouth Park.”
Funky See Funky Do will be making his first start for Dini in the 1 1/16-mile $16,000 claimer after previously being handled by Chad Summers.
In each of his last four works, he has fired a bullet. The most recent one saw him produce the best time at Saratoga for four furlongs on Aug. 23 out of 115 horses.
“He’s a fast horse. He works fast in the mornings,” said Dini. “I’m trying to get him to relax. In his last start (at Monmouth Park, when he set the pace but faded to eighth) he didn’t like the soft turf. I think he will be better on firm turf.”
Bee More will try 1 1/16 miles in a $10,000 maiden claimer after a last-place finish sprinting on the dirt at Monmouth Park on Aug. 30 in his career debut.
Dini, meanwhile, will continue to follow the same schedule he has for the past nine years, staying for the nine-day Monmouth at Meadowlands meet before heading to Tampa Bay Downs. That track opens Nov. 18.
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This story was originally published September 16, 2026 at 9:05 AM.