Red-hot Loveberry teams with Accomplished Girl again in Menard Memorial

Born and raised in rural Michigan, jockey Jareth Loveberry has found a home – at least a winter one – in cosmopolitan New Orleans.

Loveberry came to Fair Grounds four seasons ago and won 36 races. He won 50 during the 2022-23 meet and during the 2023-24 meet his 51 winners nearly earned him a riding title. Loveberry struggled on the Kentucky circuit this year, going 23 for 155 from Keeneland’s meet in April through the Churchill meet in November. This fall, he went a combined 2 for 55 at Churchill and Keeneland. But back at Fair Grounds, Loveberry is back in business. Through Sunday, he had 20 winners from 101 mounts, and on Saturday, when Corey Lanerie missed a flight from Kentucky, Loveberry and his Fair Grounds agent, Steve Leving, picked up the mount on Built, whose impressive win landed the colt on the Kentucky Derby trail.

Loveberry has recently ridden several horses for trainer Steve Asmussen, and his work aboard one of them, the mare Accomplished Girl, plays a prominent role in assessing the Nelson Menard Memorial, one of two $100,000 stakes along with the Joseph Broussard Memorial on the Thursday card.

Accomplished Girl looked like one among a bevy of pace players Nov. 30 in the Pan Zareta, the first of four turf-sprint stakes at the Fair Grounds meet for older fillies and mares. Asmussen predicted Accomplished Girl could settle behind the early speed, and Loveberry proved him correct. A couple lengths behind the leaders into the turn, Accomplished Girl, before the three-furlong marker, cleverly slipped through an opening along the fence, took command before the homestretch, opened daylight, and finished well enough to post a 1 1/2-length victory.

Loveberry had engineered a perfect trip on a 9-1 shot. Can he work out favorable passage Thursday, this time on the 7-2 morning-line favorite? If not, is Accomplished Girl good enough to win anyway?

Four others exit the Pan Zareta, most notably Cupids Crush, who had no business finishing second after coming into the lane last of 12. A 4-year-old Mac Robertson-trained Cupid filly, Cupids Crush has found a home on turf. After a grass sprint win in July at Canterbury Park, Cupids Crush won two turf routes there and another at Keeneland before cutting back to 5 1/2 furlongs in the Pan Zareta. A front-runner going long, Cupids Crush lacks the pace to lead sprints – but did she need to drop back to last in the Pan Zareta and stay there until the race was all but over? Jeiron Barbosa rides Cupids Crush for the first time Thursday and stands a solid chance of turning the tables on Loveberry and Accomplished Girl.

Loveberry has regularly ridden the mare Oeuvre, who has won the last two Menard renewals, but Oeuvre, on the cusp of her 6-year-old year, has lost a step.

Speedy Traveler is set for her grass debut Thursday, a confirmed front-runner with four wins from seven starts and a good outside draw.

Loveberry breaks from post 7, Accomplished Girl a mount with speed and tractability. Loveberry, back in New Orleans, has been putting to good use the talents of the horses underneath him.

Broussard Memorial

The way the year is ending for trainer Whit Beckman, Lexa probably rates a strong chance in the Joseph “Spanky” Broussard Memorial Stakes.

Beckman not only won two stakes Saturday, but has won with five of his last 10 starters, boosting his 2024 total to 23, 10 more winners than Beckman notched last year, his second full season as a head trainer in United States.

Lexa, a 4-year-old Gun Runner filly, has never been especially fast, her career-best Beyer Speed Figure an allowance-class 86. That does not rule her out of Broussard contention. She comes out of the best race among the eight entered in the Broussard, the Falls City at last month at Churchill Downs, where Lexa turned in one of her better performances finishing third behind Loved and Tarifa, each of whom would be heavily favored in the Broussard. And cutting back from 1 1/8 miles to a mile and 70 yards boosts Lexa’s chances.

Hoosier Philly, with more than $800,000 in earnings, easily rates as the most accomplished Broussard runner but has improved only marginally since an eye-catching victory in the 2022 Golden Rod.

Nom de Plume on the Beyer scale has hit the highest mark with a 91, but that came with a stalking trip in a six-furlong dirt sprint. Nom de Plume sprinted her last five starts though she did win a turf route in August 2023.

Brazilian native Paulo Lobo trains Nom de Plume, while Brazilian native Champagne Rose makes her North American debut in the Broussard. Trained by Kenny McPeek, Champagne Rose has earned less than $23,000 yet won a Group 1 this past May. That race, however, came over 1 1/4 miles on turf, and Champagne Rose has never tried dirt.

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