Jones girls enjoy downtime, with eyes on Saratoga

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unlike Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah, who is bidding to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years in the Belmont Stakes on June 6, the Kentucky Oaks winner won’t be running in New York anytime soon. Oaks winner Lovely Maria and stablemate I’m a Chatterbox, who ran third in the Oaks, likely won’t make an appearance in New York until Saratoga, trainer Larry Jones said.

After what Jones thought was a hard spring for the two fillies, they are in light training at Delaware Park. Neither has had an extended break from racing.

Jones said he might run Lovely Maria in the Grade 3, $300,000 Delaware Oaks on July 11 as a prep for a stakes at Saratoga, but he ruled out running either filly in the Grade 1 Acorn on the Belmont Stakes card and called the June 27 Mother Goose highly unlikely for either.

The July 27 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga and the Aug. 22 Alabama there are the races he has targeted for them, though he said he would be reluctant to run them against each other until the Alabama.

The Delaware Oaks holds appeal as a possible return race for Lovely Maria because Jones is stabled at Delaware during the summer, and he used that race as a prep for Kentucky Oaks winner Proud Spell. She won the Delaware Oaks before she took the Alabama in 2008.

Jones is excited about the possibility of running them in the 1 1/4-mile Alabama. “The longer they run, the better they are going to be,” he said.

Kentucky Oaks fifth-place finisher Birdatthewire and Black-Eyed Susan third-place finisher Ahh Chocolate could show up at Belmont Park next month. Birdatthewire, who breezed five furlongs in 1:02.60 on Saturday at Churchill Downs, is being considered for the one-mile Acorn, while Ahh Chocolate could run in the 1 1/16-mile Mother Goose.

Trainer Neil Howard said he was encouraged by Ahh Chocolate’s effort in the Black-Eyed Susan. Making just her third start, Ahh Chocolate closed into a slow pace to lose by 3 1/4 lengths.

“With that kind of a race with such a lightly raced filly, we were more than pleased,” he said.