South American pipeline widens for Correas

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The success Argentine native Ignacio Correas has found in the U.S. – first training the good older horse Kasaqui and more recently the even better mare Dona Bruja, both Argentine imports – apparently has opened a new channel in his operation.

Team Valor International earlier this year sent Correas four stakes winners purchased from Brazil and imported to North America, and on Sunday at Arlington, Love ‘n’ Happiness will be the first of those horses to race here.

Love ‘n’ Happiness is part of a compact but strong group in the second race on Sunday – a one-mile turf event with multiple allowance conditions and an $80,000 claiming option. Love ‘n’ Happiness lost her first two starts then reeled off three straight wins, including a decisive tally in a Group 1 race that made her champion 2-year-old in Brazil last year. The filly shows up as a 4-year-old, but was bred on Southern Hemisphere time and doesn’t officially turn 4 until July 1.

“She’s just medium-sized, a good-looking chestnut, well balanced with a little bit of a temper,” said Correas. “You look at her and you see she’s a 3-year-old. But from what I’ve seen in her training, she can run.”

Love ‘n’ Happiness, by leading Brazilian sire Setembro Chove, races on Lasix for the first time. Her chief competition should come from Daddy’s Boo and Lovely Loyree, both tough mares.

Meanwhile, Dona Bruja, unraced since a slightly subpar fifth-place finish after setting the pace in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on April 14 at Keeneland, is gearing up for the second half of the year. Dona Bruja dead-heated for second in the Grade 1 Beverly D. last summer at Arlington and is being aimed directly at that race, Correas said. Dona Bruja was scheduled to have her first workout since the Jenny Wiley on Saturday morning at Keeneland.