In Love tries synthetic in Prairie Bayou

As the winner of a Grade 1 turf race in October 2021, the Brazilian-bred In Love was all set for a huge 2022.

It was not to be – although, when running Saturday in the Prairie Bayou at Turfway Park, the 6-year-old gelding can end the year on a winning note.

“I do think he should run well on the synthetic track,” said trainer Paulo Lobo, further noting how turf horses in general maintain their form on Tapeta. “No, he has never raced or even trained on it, but I feel like it will be no problem.”

Gerardo Corrales, well on his way to another Turfway riding title, has a return call on In Love, who will break from post 1 in an oversubscribed field of 3-year-olds and upward in the $125,0000 Prairie Bayou, a 1 1/16-mile fixture that anchors an eight-race Saturday card at Turfway in northern Kentucky.

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In Love won the Grade 1 Keeneland Turf Mile before finishing a decent seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar to end his 5-year-old campaign. He’s gone winless in five 2022 starts, but a two-back runner-up finish in a Keeneland turf allowance graded out to a 96 Beyer Speed Figure, and Corrales was impressed enough with the gelding in a last-out third-place finish in the off-the-turf River City at Churchill Downs to want the mount back.

Despite a frustrating season with In Love, this has been a breakthrough year for Lobo, the 54-year-old Brazilian who began training in the U.S. in 2001 in California. Now based year-round at the Thoroughbred training center in Lexington, Lobo has achieved career highs in wins (52) and stable earnings ($3.1 million) in 2022.

“It has been a very good year,” he said.

A very competitive group will line up outside of In Love, with the most accomplished runners over turf being Accredit, Field Pass, Cellist, and Price Talk. Of those, Price Talk (post 11, Fernando De La Cruz) might attract the most tote play after winning his latest race, the Remington Green, in September.

Further depth is added by Hozier, B Dawk, and Double Crown, all of them having done their best work on dirt.

Space Force Won and Tartufo are the also-eligibles in a field of 14 that does not include two exclusions.

First post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 3:45 as race 7.

This is the 27th running of the Prairie Bayou, which honors the ill-fated gelding who in 1993 won the annual Turfway showcase then known as the Jim Beam Stakes prior to winning the Preakness.

After Saturday, Turfway will run seven more dates (Dec. 21-23 and 28-31) to end the holiday meet. The three-month winter-spring meet then will start with a one-off Sunday card (Jan. 1), reverting to a Wednesday-to-Saturday schedule afterward.

◗ Tony Calo, the longtime race-caller at Finger Lakes, is filling in while Turfway caller Jimmy McNerney continues to recover from neck surgery.

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