Jones remains high on filly Midnight On Oconee

NEW ORLEANS – Larry Jones first started saying in December how the filly Midnight On Oconee was developing along the same lines as Lovely Maria, and when you heard Jones say it, saw Midnight On Oconee’s record, and remembered that Lovely Maria won the Kentucky Oaks, you scrunched your face up in doubt.

Jones still is saying the same thing this week, and suddenly the connection doesn’t look so farfetched. Midnight On Oconee battled hard to finish second to the highly regarded Stageplay last month in the Silverbulletday Stakes, and she’ll get another crack at her Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes at Fair Grounds.

On Tuesday, it was Jones himself astride Midnight On Oconee when the filly came off the track, blinkered and in draw reins, after a typically spirited Jones-style gallop. Midnight On Oconee wants to train too hard and always goes in draw reins to give her rider more control. Jones started using blinkers last fall at Keeneland when Midnight On Oconee was focused more on the Breeders’ Cup construction than on training.

Midnight On Oconee raced last fall at Keeneland, finishing second in a sprint allowance race, and that was the second step she took along the same path that Lovely Maria trod. Lovely Maria also was a second-out runner-up in a Keeneland allowance after scoring, like Midnight On Oconee, a debut win at Delaware Park. At Fair Grounds in late November 2014, Lovely Maria finished a close second in a sprint allowance race, and late last November, Midnight On Oconee won a Fair Grounds allowance race. Jones sent Lovely Maria to Remington Park to finish fourth in the Trapeze Stakes; Midnight On Oconee went to Remington and finished fourth in the Trapeze. Back at Fair Grounds for a race in January, Lovely Maria won a first-level allowance at one mile and 70 yards, while Midnight On Oconee was second by 1 1/4 lengths in the mile-and-70-yard Silverbulletday on Jan. 16.

In the Rachel Alexandra last year, Lovely Maria bid early into a hot pace and wound up second to stablemate I’m a Chatterbox. This year, Jones has only the one filly in the race.

“This is the time of year our fillies tend to start getting good,” Jones said. “Hopefully, Midnight On Oconee continues to follow along the same lines as Lovely Maria.”