Lovemesomeme takes easier path in allowance
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A somewhat conspicuous absence from the Grade 3 Chicago won Saturday by Lady Rocket at Churchill was Lovemesomeme, a 6 1/2-length allowance winner earlier in the meet.
“The Chicago was almost like a Grade 1,” said Billy Denzik, the former trainer who co-owns Lovemesomeme. “It would’ve been a huge jump, lightly raced as our filly is. If she keeps making progress, though, I’d guess we’ll be facing those good ones soon enough.”
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Lovemesomeme, with Brian Hernandez Jr. riding, figures to vie for favoritism with Travel Column in the Wednesday feature (race 7), the only allowance on an eight-race card that kicks off the final six-day stretch of the spring meet. Seven older fillies and mares will vie for a maximum purse of $141,000 going seven furlongs.
Lovemesomeme, trained by Tommy Drury, has won three straight after being defeated in her April 2021 debut. Travel Column, winner of the 2020 Golden Rod, will be making her first start in nearly 13 months for her new trainer, Bill Mott.
◗ Corey Lanerie and his former longtime agent Terry “Jaws” Miller will be reunited this summer. Miller, who took a self-imposed sabbatical in recent years, will resume booking mounts for Lanerie when Ellis Park starts July 8. Lanerie, a 19-time meet titlist at Churchill, has been represented for the last three-plus years by Cory Prewitt, who will continue to work for jockey Colby Hernandez.
Lanerie’s most recent of 4,899 career wins came Sunday, when he skimmed the rail in the seventh race aboard Mardukas ($91.60) for trainer Jeff Engler.
◗ Conagher, the ascendant 3-year-old with Beyer Speed Figures of 97 and 104 in his last two starts, could make his next start Sunday in the inaugural running of the seven-furlong Maxfield at Churchill, trainer Mike Tomlinson said. However, a stretchout to 1 1/16 miles in the Iowa Derby on July 9 at Prairie Meadows is an alternative spot, said Tomlinson, adding the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens on the Travers undercard on Aug. 27 at Saratoga remains the primary goal for the Jimmy Creed colt.
◗ Trainer Peter Miller said Get Her Number could return to his Southern California base for the Bing Crosby or San Diego Handicap, both set for July 30 at Del Mar. Get Her Number, winner of the Grade 1 American Pharoah in September 2020, earned a 90 Beyer in winning a seven-furlong allowance Saturday at Churchill, giving Miller his first winner since he went on hiatus last fall.
◗ Jockey Florent Geroux took off Sunday and will be off his mounts Wednesday and Thursday to serve a three-day suspension for a riding infraction stemming from the disqualification of his mount Sunny River from first to second in the ninth race June 19.
◗ Through 36 days at this meet, field size is averaging 7.94 horses per race (even with dirt-only in recent weeks), and favorites are winning at a 35 percent clip (122 for 348).