Loved breaks through with Mari Hulman Memorial victory

Loved had run fast enough on a few occasions to win a stakes race and on Saturday at Horseshoe Indianapolis she finally did, coming through as the 11-10 favorite with a two-length victory in the $100,000 Mari Hulman George Stakes.

Under Florent Geroux, Loved stalked wide as Hidden Connection set the pace, 46.06 for her opening half-mile over a fast, fast-playing surface. Geroux sidled up into contention from the three-furlong marker to the quarter pole, and in the homestretch, Loved took Hidden Connection’s measure with little resistance. Loved wandered a bit wide but strode home to a convincing victory, Take a Stand second by a half-length over a fading Hidden Connection.

Loved, who paid $4.20 as the favorite, was timed in 1:42.44 for 1 1/16 miles. A Godolphin homebred, Loved is trained by Brendan Walsh and is a half-sister to the Grade 1 winner Maxfield, whom Walsh also trained. Loved, off more than a year following her debut, won a maiden and two allowance races to start her 2023 campaign but was fourth making her stakes debut in the Molly Pitcher at Monmouth in July, went to the sidelines again, and finished fifth in the Doubledogdare at Keeneland making her 5-year-old debut in April. Walsh freshened the mare and got the stakes score connections sought beating seven in the Hulman George.

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Fuente Ovejuna takes General Assembly Distaff

Fuente Ovejuna came out atop a wild five-horse blanket finish to win the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff.

Corey Lanerie gave Fuente Ovejuna a perfect trip, saving ground around both turns of this 1 1/16-mile grass race before slipping off the fence at the three-sixteenths pole to make a run. Fuente Ovejuna changed leads just a beat late but surged when she did, getting up by a head over Stir Crazy, who had to dive inside to find room in the final furlong.

A neck behind Stir Crazy came pacesetting Bolivie, who dead heated for third with Join the Dance, 3-2 favorite Regal Realm a neck back in fifth.

Fuente Ovejuna gave trainer Brendan Walsh a second stakes win on the day following Loved’s tally in the Mari Hulman George. And like Loved, Fuente Ovejuna won her first stakes race.

Six-year-old Fuente Ovejuna was bred in England, a daughter of Lope de Vega and the Dream Ahead mare Lipstick Rose, and began her career there in 2021. She was exported to California to race early in 2022, joining Walsh’s stable later that year. Fuente Ovejuna put together an 11-race losing streak that ran from France through California, to Kentucky and Florida, before finally winning a first-level allowance in May 2023. She then took seven more defeats and came to Horseshoe Indianapolis with a 2-21 record, posting a $20.80 upset while ridden for the first time by Lanerie. Fuente Ovejuna was timed in 1:42.29 over a course that had been upgraded from yielding to good. The mare was just barely good enough.

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