Lewisfield improving, eyes Not For Love Stakes

Lewisfield improved his record to four wins from six starts with an emphatic 6 3/4-length optional-claiming win at Laurel Park last Saturday, blazing six furlongs in 1:08.95 over a not particularly glib track and earning a career-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure.

Trainer Jeff Runco, winner of more than 4,000 races, vanned the 4-year-old Maryland-bred son of Great Notion back to his Charles Town stable that evening.

“He’s a nice, big horse who does everything right and is getting better and better,” Runco said. “He’s a promising horse. He’s in the upper echelon of all the horses I have trained.”

Runco is bringing Lewisfield around slowly. Although a decision has not been made on a next start, Runco said the $75,000 Not For Love, a six-furlong stakes for statebreds March 17 at Laurel, is a logical spot.

“We’re taking our time with him between starts,” Runco said. “We want him to last. The winter’s been tough.”

Lewisfield was bred and is owned by Linda Zang, the wife of James F. Lewis III, the late president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association. Laurel runs a race each fall in memory of Lewis, who died of a heart attack in 2012 at age 72. Runco estimates that he trained for Lewis for 10 to 15 years.

Lewis bred his horses under the name Lewisfield Farm. Duckhorn, whom he bred, won the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup in 2001 and the Grade 3 Ben Ali in 2002 for owner Michael Tabor and trainer Pat Byrne.

Duckhorn and Bella Medaglia, a winner of $355,000, are out of the mare Ten’s Testamony, the second dam of Lewisfield.