Rich City Girl prevails in Lady Carey, Mondogetsbuckets triumphs in Molaro Memorial
Mondogetsbuckets and Rich City Girl won watered down stakes races on Sunday at Hawthorne, where waves of rain around Chicagoland Thursday into Sunday forced two turf stakes onto dirt.
A total of 11 horses started, four in the Robert Molaro Memorial and seven in the Lady Carey, after 10 were scratched following Hawthorne’s Friday announcement that all Sunday’s races would be run on dirt. Rich City Girl came through as the heavy favorite for trainer Larry Rivelli and jockey Jareth Loveberry in the Lady Carey, but Uncashed failed to hold clear Mondogetsbuckets as the odds-on choice in the Molaro.
Uncashed took an early lead and held it to the sixteenth pole, where pacechasing Mondogetsbuckets, after a slog, finally collared him, scoring by a head in the $97,000 Molaro. More than 14 lengths separated Uncashed from third-place Midnight Special in a four-horse race in which show wagers still were accepted.
Mondogetsbuckets ran 5 1/2 furlongs on a fast track in 1:02.67 and paid $4.80. Trained by Chris Block for his breeder, Town and Country Racing, Mondogetsbuckets is a gelded 4-year-old by Omaha Beach out of My Muss Chiff, by Into Mischief. Quietly, he’s won four of seven starts.
Larry Rivelli trains Uncashed and notched a stakes win two races after his defeat when Rich City Girl won the Lady Carey by 2 1/2 lengths. Going straight to the front and racing clear through a half in 44.77, Rich City Girl was slow to change leads in the homestretch, creating the eighth-pole illusion that two chasers were gaining ground. The filly finally switched to her proper lead, dashing any hopes of an upset as she ran out a 2 1/2-length winner over her stablemate Shezafunkydrummer. Gray Lightning, typically a pace player, finished well from fifth to just miss second.
Rich City Girl got her 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.52 and paid $3.40. Rivelli trains the 3-year-old filly, by City of Light and out of the War Front mare Hassler, for longtime clients Patricia’s Hope and Richard Raven. Rich City Girl, a pricey 2-year-old auction buy last year, has won four of six starts.
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