Oeuvre picks up where she left off with Menard Memorial victory
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Oeuvre nearly was perfect during 2022 and started her 2023 campaign Saturday at Fair Grounds with a nearly perfect performance winning the $99,000 Nelson J. Menard Memorial Stakes.
A seven-time winner from eight starts last year, Oeuvre put herself and jockey Jareth Loveberry in ideal position just after the start of the Menard, a filly-and-mare turf sprint, took the measure of pacesetting Charlie T at the furlong grounds, and went on to a two-length victory – a flawless performance until the filly switched back to her “wrong” lead at the sixteenth pole. No matter, as the outcome had been decided by then, Loveberry hand-riding his mount to a decisive score.
Charlie T bucked a course bias toward outside closers, hanging tough for second after racing along the inside (the temporary rail was set at 34 feet), finishing 1 1/4 lengths in front of long-layoff comebacker Astute, the 2.2-1 favorite over 2.4-1 Oeuvre. Aboukir Bay, last by a mile with three furlongs to race, came wide and rode the bias to a fourth-place finish. She was followed across the line by Eve’s Delight, New Boss, Touch of Class, and Violenza. Oeuvre ran about 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:06.26 and paid $6.80.
This was the second day in a row that trainer Chris Block and Loveberry had won a Fair Grounds turf feature with an Illinois-bred filly, Trail Ridge Road having captured the feature seventh race Friday.
Block trains Oeuvre for her breeder, Richard Perkins, who turned the filly over to Block following her 2-year-old season. What a year she had for her owner and new trainer, winning at Hawthorne and Colonial, finishing third in a rich Kentucky Downs Stakes, and in her final start last season landing the Pan Zareta over the Fair Grounds dirt track.
Oeuvre is by Shackleford out of Love This Kitten, by Kitten’s Joy. She went 1 for 6 as a 2-year-old and since has won seven of her eight starts – and there ought still to be more to come.
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