Lovell can add to career year

Despite sending a string to Colonial Downs for the first time in her career, necessitated by Churchill Downs closing its backstretch during summer turf-course construction, trainer Michelle Lovell is wrapping up the best year of a training career that began in 2003.

In 2010, Lovell won a personal-best 72 races, her 282 runners that year earning about $1.4 million. Her 2021 win total stands at just 23, but stable earnings already have topped $1.6 million, and Lovell still has runners in rich races. She was to start Just Might, one of two stable stars, in the $150,000 Thanksgiving Classic at Fair Grounds, while on Sunday, Lovell has her other big horse, Change of Control, in the $150,000 Autumn Days Stakes at Aqueduct.

Just Might has won five stakes races this year, while Change of Control already is a three-time stakes winner. Lovell never had won more than four stakes in a calendar year but has eight in 2021.

“It’s hard to imagine a 20-horse stable with eight stakes wins,” Lovell said. “It’s been an awesome year.”

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