Luck, Lighthouse make for global New Year's celebration for Foxwoods
ARCADIA, Calif. - Globally, New Year’s Day was a milestone racing holiday for Larry, Nancy and Jaime Roth’s LNJ Foxwoods Stable. Not many stables win stakes in Australia and California on the same calendar day.
On Saturday at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, the 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare Lighthouse remained unbeaten in four starts in Australia with a victory in the $115,900 Chester Manifold Stakes at seven furlongs.
At Santa Anita, Luck won her first stakes in the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles for fillies and mares.
Luck, trained by Richard Baltas, won the $101,000 Frankel Stakes by a commanding 3 1/4 lengths as the 9-10 favorite. Luck was ridden by Flavien Prat, his fourth of six wins on the program.
Luck, also a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred mare, has won 4 of 8 starts. She was a two-time winner in France in 2020 and 2021 and has been a consistent performer since arriving in California during the summer.
After a win in an allowance race at Del Mar in her American debut in August, Luck was second by a head in her next two starts - the Grade 1 Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita on Oct. 2 and the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at Del Mar on Nov. 25.
“She’s a very good horse,” Baltas said on Sunday morning.
Luck will not have a busy campaign in coming months. Baltas said Luck’s next start could be the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at a mile on turf for fillies and mares at Keeneland in April.
“We may not run for a while,” Baltas said. “We want to win a Grade 1 with her.”
Lighthouse began her career with trainer Simon Callaghan in California.
Lighthouse’s best result in the United States was a win in the $360,385 Music City Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf for 3-year-old fillies at Kentucky Downs in September 2020. She was fifth in the Wishing Well Stakes for turf sprinters at Santa Anita last February in her most recent start in the United States.
Lighthouse is now trained by the partnership of Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, one of the country’s leading stables. Lighthouse won three minor handicaps in Australia from Nov. 3 to Dec. 11. In the Manifold Stakes, Lighthouse recovered from a slow start to win by 1 1/4 lengths.
After Saturday’s win, Lighthouse was mentioned in published reports as a candidate for the Group 1 C.F. Orr Stakes, a $543,000 race at seven furlongs at Caulfield Racecourse on Feb. 12.