My Mertie rewards confidence of connections in Chicago Handicap

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Michele Boyce felt certain My Mertie was going to improve in her second start of the season, and jockey Carlos Marquez Jr. came into Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Chicago Handicap “with the utmost confidence” in the horse, according to Boyce.

“Then I looked up the tote board and started wondering if there was something I was missing,” Boyce said.

It was not Boyce who had missed something but the betting public, who let My Mertie go at odds of 33-1 and watched as she clipped past odds-on favorite Hotshot Anna at the furlong grounds and scored a 1 1/4-length victory.

My Mertie ($69.40) won her first graded stakes while running the best race of her career in the second start of her 7-year-old season.

“My horses tend to get better with age,” said Boyce, who has 8-year-old Lovely Loyree still racing in six-figure turf-route stakes races around the Midwest this year.

My Mertie is an Illinois-bred by Magna Graduate out of Kate the Great, whom Boyce also trained. Kate the Great’s first foal to race, Katie the Lady, was a stakes winner who has three foals on the ground now, the oldest a 2-year-old. My Mertie’s younger brother, Blue Sky Kowboy, is a capable turf horse who was to start here Sunday in the featured race.

Boyce trains My Mertie for her Cherrywood Racing Stables, Oak Rock Racing, and Terry Biondo, and My Mertie ran her career mark to 8-7-7 from 31 starts. My Mertie has a special fondness for the Arlington Polytrack, over which she has compiled a 4-5-2 record from 12 starts, racing effectively around two turns and one.

The seven-furlong Chicago set up nicely for My Mertie, who raced along the inside and near the tail of the field as Student Body along the rail fought for the lead with Annathela through an opening quarter-mile in 22.60 seconds and a half in 45.30.

Hotshot Anna dominated this race a year ago and was the 123-pound starting highweight, giving five pounds to My Mertie. But she was making her first start in nine months after fracturing her withers over the winter in New Orleans, and owner-trainer Hugh Robertson, who wanted a prep race for Saturday’s start, feared his mare would come up short. Jose Valdivia Jr. gave Hotshot Anna a perfect trip, sitting third, several lengths behind the dueling leaders, and at the quarter pole it looked like the favorite would have her way with this field. But Hotshot Anna tired slightly in the late stages as My Mertie finished off her race with aplomb.

Off a six-furlong split of 1:10.02 the winner was timed in 1:22.44. Heavenly Hill finished third, well beaten for the place. Student Body stopped badly in the stretch and was eased across the finish.