Lovable Lyss to be tested for stamina

NEW ORLEANS – Hugh Robertson probably wouldn’t mind if you called him a bottom feeder, not if you were talking about his approach to horse auctions. Robertson has no problem scouring the bottom of the barrel looking for bargains, and through the years he has found plenty of them.

Take the 6-year-old Bet Seattle: Robertson bought him for $1,500 at Keeneland’s January sale in 2010, and Bet Seattle, the winner of the Duncan F. Kenner Stakes at the last Fair Grounds meet, has banked more than $400,000.

Compared to him, the 2-year-old filly Lovable Lyss cost a bundle, though Robertson gave a mere $7,000 for her at the massive Keeneland September yearling sale in 2014. Two races into her career, Lovable Lyss already has earned four times her purchase price, and if her Fair Grounds maiden win Nov. 21 was any guide, there’s more to come. Robertson said a few days after that six-furlong race that he wanted to stretch out Lovable Lyss to two turns sometime this winter, and sometime is Thursday, when Lovable Lyss meets six rivals in a first-level allowance race carded for one mile and 70 yards and also open to $50,000 claimers.

Lovable Lyss is by Big Brown and is the fourth foal to race out of the unraced Stephen Got Even mare Dakota Rae. The dam’s first three runners inclined toward speed over stamina, but Lovable Lyss looked like a strong stretch-out candidate in her recent maiden win, where she rated kindly, drew clear with aplomb to win by 3 1/4 lengths, and was geared down late by Cisco Torres, still getting her last furlong in a good 12.65 seconds.

The race came in slop, and Lovable Lyss has yet to start on dry dirt, but her promising Polytrack performance while debuting at Arlington hints that it wasn’t merely mud that moved her up.

Lovable Lyss is the second choice at 5-2 on the morning line for race 7, with Twirl Girl the 2-1 favorite. Trained by Joe Sharp, the fourth-time-starting Twirl Girl, by Twirling Candy, also tries two turns for the first time. She was second of six in a $100,000 Laurel stakes last out after narrowly winning her maiden two back at Keeneland. Northwest Girl, a last-out Churchill maiden winner for Dallas Stewart, also rates a chance.

Race 8 on the Thursday card, a second-level allowance with a $40,000 claiming option carded for one mile on grass, is even more appealing from a betting standpoint: There are 11 horses entered in the field’s main body, and the race is packed with contenders. The narrow nod goes to Grand Contender, who might make the early lead and could benefit therein from the temporary rail being placed 22 feet out into the course.