Jockey Jareth Loveberry notched the 2,000th win of his career last Friday at Fair Grounds. This Thursday at Fair Grounds, Loveberry has two key mounts – one you could bet on, the other you might bet against – in the co-featured seventh and eighth races. In race 7, a second-level dirt sprint allowance with a $50,000 claiming option, Loveberry regains the ride on the 3-year-old Built, set, for the second time this month, to make his first start since the Pat Day Mile on Kentucky Derby Day. Listed at 7-5 on the morning line while returning from the long break at a six-furlong distance likely short of his best, Built should be viewed with healthy skepticism. In race 8, a second-level turf sprint allowance with a $50,000 claiming option, Loveberry gains the mount on Monsieur Candy, 10-1 on the morning line and sitting on the opposite side of the value spectrum as Built. This card has two sprints at the same class level because a broken water main just outside the track forced the cancellation of the Dec. 5 program, where Built and Monsieur Candy were entered in the second-level turf sprint allowance. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Wayne Catalano, who trains Built for Eclipse Thoroughbreds, wasn’t looking for a turf race so much as any race for Built, who in November had been entered in a dirt allowance that initially failed to fill. Loveberry rode Built to victory in the Gun Runner Stakes about a year ago and to a second-place finish in the Lecomte, where Built floundered over sloppy going, but Luis Saez took the mount for a third-place finish in the Risen Star, Jose Ortiz rode Built to a fifth in the Louisiana Derby, and Umberto Rispoli was aboard for a flat, over-the-top flop in the Pat Day Mile. Loveberry’s crossing the 2,000-win milestone traces to the partnership he formed with his agent, the Chicago-based Steve Leving, when Loveberry shifted his tack to Arlington, where he won riding titles in 2020 and 2021. By then, Larry Rivelli had supplanted Catalano as Arlington’s kingpin trainer, but when Catalano ruled the roost, he worked closely with Leving, racing manager for the late owner Frank Calabrese. Leving and Catalano have remained associates ever since. Loveberry, 38, who had toiled in relative obscurity before the Chicago move, came to Fair Grounds with Leving for the 2021-22 season, won 36 races, and has increased his total every meet since, booting home 55 winners during 2024-25. Loveberry won three races over the weekend and enters this racing week with 12 winners, two fewer than leading rider Paco Lopez. As for Built, Catalano believes he could find his top level as a miler. Built has posted fast works – good works, too, Catalano said – but cleared the maiden ranks going seven furlongs and will attempt to rally on a racing surface that played kindly to front-runners in many recent contests. Loveberry has never ridden for Alice Cohn, trainer of Monsieur Candy, in part because Cohn operates a tiny stable. Monsieur Candy marks her 17th runner of 2025. If you don’t think Monsieur Candy fits this spot, you’re not looking back far enough in his running lines, and you didn’t watch the gelding’s last race. In April 2024, Monsieur Candy, in his fourth career outing, second on turf, made his first start for Cohn and went wire to wire in a first-level Keeneland turf-sprint allowance. The 94 Beyer Speed Figure that performance produced stamps Monsieur Candy as a primary player Thursday, and the Louisiana-bred gelding has upside on the day. After two Colonial Downs starts this summer for a different trainer, Monsieur Candy rejoined the Cohn stable for an Oct. 17 try in a Keeneland turf sprint at this class level. A horse who typically has led, pressed, or stalked, Monsieur Candy reared at the break, spotting his nine rivals some six lengths. Ninth of 10 at the five-sixteenths marker, he closed for third, a very strong showing under the circumstances, and Monsieur Candy has two good tries over the Fair Grounds grass. ◗ The Louisiana-bred 2-year-old filly Little Miss Curlin not only ran her record to 3 for 3 sharply capturing the Louisiana Champions Day Lassie, she earned an 84 Beyer Speed Figure, tied for eighth-best this year among 2-year-old dirt fillies. Trainer Pat Devereux said Sunday that no one is rushing to test Little Miss Curlin in routes or open company. Devereux said the plan is to run her back Jan. 3 in the fillies division of the Louisiana Futurity, where Little Miss Curlin will be, at most, 1-5. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.