Lots o' Lex improves dramatically in One Dreamer
Racing without a prior 2016 start in the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington Park on Aug. 13, Lots o’ Lex blew the break and never got involved against some of the best fillies and mares in the country. Sent south to Kentucky Downs for her second race of the year Saturday in the $149,265 One Dreamer, the company was noticeably different, as was her performance.
Lots o’ Lex came away well, and after stalking the pace for three-quarters of a mile, spurted clear in the stretch, and held on for a length victory over fellow Beverly D. also-ran No Fault of Mine, the 2-1 favorite.
Fleet Bertie ran third, three quarters of a length behind No Fault of Mine, and Complete Street was a distant fourth.
The winner, a 5-year-old daughter of Kitalpha owned by Lisa Lex, covered a mile and 70 yards over a “good” course in 1:43.17, paying $27.20.
Channing Hill, aboard Lots o’ Lex for the first time, said she handled the wet Kentucky Downs course after it was hit with a storm about an hour before the race, and proved clearly best.
“Her ears came up about the eighth pole, and she cruised in from there,” Hill said.
Trainer Gerald Aschinger was pleased see her run the way she did after her poor performance in the Beverly D., when she acted up in the gate and ended up 13th. “Today she proved the mare that she is,” he said.
The victory gave Lots o’ Lex the first stakes victory of her career after she came close a couple of times in 2015 with a third in the Grade 3 Endeavor at Tampa Bay Downs and a second in the Stickney Handicap at Hawthorne.
Late-rallying runner-up No Fault of Mine performed well in defeat, rallying fastest down the stretch on a day when speed horses were more successful than closers at Kentucky Downs.
The One Dreamer, named after upset winner of the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Distaff who was a stakes winner at Kentucky Downs when the track was called Dueling Grounds, was restricted to fillies and mares that had not won a stakes race in 2016.