Lovestruck holds off Invincible Gal to take Tepin Stakes

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - With Lovestruck, the waiting is the hardest part.

Nearly three months after Lovestruck won her career debut, she finally made her stakes debut Sunday in the $100,000 Tepin Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Aqueduct. And just like in her career debut, her victory wasn’t official until the stewards reviewed the replay.

Lovestruck outfinished Invincible Gal to win the Tepin by a length. The stewards put up the inquiry sign as Lovestruck, under Junior Alvarado, moved out a path in the stretch and Lexinator, under Jorge Vargas Jr., shied away from her in an exaggerated fashion. There was no objection and the stewards quickly made the race official.

On Labor Day, when she won her debut at Saratoga, Lovestruck had to withstand a jockey’s objection for alleged interference in the stretch.

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“She’s still a little bit green,” said Alvarado, who won four of seven stakes run at Aqueduct over the holiday weekend. “When she got to the lead she was wandering about a little bit, which is fine because when she puts it all together we can get a little more from her.”

Her connections were hoping to have gotten a little more from Lovestruck by now. Lovestruck, owned by Godolphin Racing and trained by Bill Mott, was scratched from the Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont on Oct. 4 due to a temperature. She was entered back in the Chelsey Flower Stakes at Belmont on Nov. 1, but scratched when the turf course came up soft.

Thus, Lovestruck on Sunday was making her first start in nearly 12 weeks.

Lovestruck broke well and was in a joint second inside of Lexinator as both were within close attendance to the pacesetting Big Time Lady, who ran a half-mile in 50.50 seconds and six furlongs in 1:16.21 over the “good” inner turf course.

Turning for home, Alvarado was beginning to make his move when Big Time Lady, under Eric Cancel, came out a little bit. That prompted Lovestruck to also come out, and that’s when Vargas took up on Lexinator.

As Lovestruck was bearing down on Big Time Lady from the outside, Invincible Gal, last early on under Jose Ortiz, was rallying along the inside.

Lovestruck’s kick was stronger as she beat Invincible Gal to the wire.

Invincible Gal was second by 1 1/2 lengths over Big Time Lady. Island Treasure finished fourth, followed by Fifth Risk, Bravo Regina, and Lexinator.

Thursday was pulled up by jockey Nik Juarez midway down the backstretch. Though she was vanned off the course, Thursday broke both sesamoids in her left foreleg and had to be euthanized, according to her trainer James “Chucky’ Lawrence.

Lovestruck, a daughter of Tapit owned by Godolphin Racing and trained by Bill Mott, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:47.14 and returned $4.20 as the favorite.

“She ran the way we hoped, she’s been doing really, really well,” said Leana Willaford, assistant to trainer Bill Mott. “She’s matured quite a bit since she’s been down here from Saratoga. I was anticipating that she would run well and she did, which made me happy; that doesn’t always happen.”

The connections of Invincible Gal chose the Tepin over Saturday’s Jimmy Durante Stakes at Del Mar in which she drew post 13. Breaking from post 4 Sunday, Ortiz felt he had a beautiful trip on Invincible Gal and was just second best.

“There was a good opening on the inside in the stretch, I thought I got a shot to get there but the winner she showed up, she’s the real deal also,” Ortiz said.