Lovell adds two more stakes wins
Trainer Michelle Lovell last week expressed amazement that her stable, numbering roughly 20 horses, had managed to knock out eight stakes wins during 2021.
Days later, the stakes tally had grown to 10 after stable stars Just Might won at Fair Grounds and Change of Control at Aqueduct.
Just Might, notching his sixth stakes victory this calendar year, coasted to a front-running 2 1/2-length win in the $150,000 Thanksgiving Classic, a six-furlong dirt sprint, with Colby Hernandez easing up on his mount through the final half-furlong.
“He came out of it great,” Lovell said Sunday. “Colby didn’t move on him, just shook the reins a couple times, looked over at the board, and wrapped up on him.”
The Fair Grounds timer malfunctioned in the Thanksgiving. Randy Moss, who makes Beyer Speed Figures at Fair Grounds, gave Just Might a 101 Beyer based on a hand-timed clocking. Moss said he timed Just Might in 1:09.95, while TimeformUS’s Craig Milkowski got 1:09.84, which is being used as the official time.
Just Might handles turf as well as dirt, and Lovell said she plans to run the 5-year-old gelding back Dec. 26 at Fair Grounds in the Richie Scherer Memorial, a grass sprint.
Grass sprinting is Change of Control’s game and Sunday in New York she won her fourth stakes of 2021, the $150,000 Autumn Days. Change of Control has banked more than $400,000 this season with two stakes scores at Keeneland and the Intercontinental at Belmont to go along with the Autumn Days. Lovell said owner Roddy Harrison initially considered retiring 5-year-old Change of Control following her 2020 campaign, but now, after a successful 2021, the plan is to race the mare again in 2022 at age 6.
There are a bevy of female turf-sprint stakes on the Fair Grounds schedule as well as a suitable Sam Houston race in January, and connections need only decide whether to run back in December or wait until the following month to race Change of Control.