I'm a Chatterbox to try turf in Marie Krantz Memorial
NEW ORLEANS – While schooling I’m a Chatterbox in the Fair Grounds paddock Sunday, trainer Larry Jones confirmed that the multiple Grade 1-winning mare will make her turf debut Saturday in the $75,000 Marie Krantz Memorial Stakes here.
I’m a Chatterbox’s first start on grass has been a long time coming, and has come about by accident.
I’m a Chatterbox got a brief Kentucky freshening following her fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, then came to Fair Grounds to prepare for her winter goal, the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic on Jan. 28 at Sam Houston. But that race now apparently is out of reach.
Fair Grounds, because of an equine herpesvirus outbreak, is under quarantine, and the chances of I’m a Chatterbox being permitted to leave Fair Grounds, much less travel to a track in another state, are slim to none.
“We’re here, we’re ready to go, so we might as well run her,” said Jones, who trains I’m a Chatterbox for Fletcher and Carolyn Gray.
Had things worked out differently, I’m a Chatterbox might have raced on turf two winters ago. She made her first three starts in Kentucky for trainer Ken McPeek before joining Jones’s barn at Fair Grounds late in 2014. I’m a Chatterbox had run well enough on dirt, but Jones thought he might have a grass horse on his hands.
“I was trying to get her in a turf race before the Silverbulletday, and it wouldn’t go, wouldn’t go,” Jones said. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I ran her in there, and like they say, the rest is history.”
I’m a Chatterbox went on in 2015 to win the Grade 1 Cotillion and Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and finish second in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and Grade 1 Alabama.
I’m a Chatterbox is by Munnings, whose offspring often handle grass, and her half-brother Zinger won a turf maiden race at Fair Grounds earlier this month. The Krantz could open new doors for I’m a Chatterbox – or leave her connections trying to figure out what to do next.
“I have no idea what will happen with her beyond this weekend,” Jones said. “Maybe she won’t like turf at all. We’re just going to have to wait and see.”