Belmont: Lovely Lil heads Iroquois

Barbara D. Livingston

Lovely Lil, with Ramon Dominguez in the saddle, wins the Union Avenue at Saratoga.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Lovely Lil could be the shortest-priced favorite in the seven stakes races at Belmont Park on Saturday when she heads a field of nine entered in the $125,000 Iroquois Stakes for female sprinters at seven furlongs.

Lovely Lil won two races against statebred competition to start her 4-year-old season before running third to Pomeroys Pistol in the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap.

“This race fit her too perfectly,” trainer Mike Hushion said of the Iroquois. “Timing-wise, distance and there’s nothing wrong with $125,000 either.”

Though all four of Lovely Lil’s victories have come at six furlongs or shorter, Hushion noted that Lovely Lil ran well when beaten a neck by Check Point in a one-mile race at Parx last fall.

“Her race going a mile at Philly was by far a winning race,” Hushion said. “She got hammered late.”

At 124 pounds, Lovely Lil will be spotting to 3 to 9 pounds to the rest of the field.

Risky Rachel, a 10-length allowance winner at Saratoga, and Sentimental Lass, second to champion Awesome Feather in an overnight stakes here on Oct. 5, and Spa City Princess, loom the major threats to Lovely Lil.