HOT SPRINGS -- Apparently, the racetrack at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort is made of sugar for a filly named Lovely Ride.
From her last race through much of the fall, trainer Robertino Diodoro said Lovely Ride had soured from racing and all involved with the sport. He said he would send her to Oaklawn and hope for the best, which came for at least a day with her wire-to-gate win in the $150,000 Mistletoe Stakes in 1:39.77 over a mile on a sloppy track before an estimated crowd of 13,500 on Saturday.
In her last start, Lovely Ride finished last of 12 in the Grade III Trillium Stakes at Woodbine in Etobicoke, Ontario, on Aug. 13.
"It's funny how these horses are," Diodoro said. "She just did a complete 360 in the last, probably, 45 days. Sometimes these horses just drive you crazy, but she's a funny filly, especially in the mornings. She really went south on us after the Woodbine race. Part of it was being a filly. She got sour on us."
Off at 9-2, Lovely Ride finished 3 1/2 lengths in front of the second-place 8-5 favorite Coach. Will's Secret was 1 1/4 lengths further back in third. Le Da Vida finished fourth, 5 3/4 lengths behind the winner in the field of six.
Ice Orchid scratched.
Joe Talamo, set for a full season at Oaklawn, rode Kueber Racing's Coach, trained by Brad Cox.
"I thought I was the winner all the way around there," Talamo said. "The winner was a little bit quicker than us to get to the outside there and laid perfect without getting her face dirty at all. We just never could get by her."
Lovely Ride, under rider Cristian Torres, broke first from the gate and led through the opening quarter-mile in 23.97. Coach was second, 1 1/2 lengths behind Lovely Ride and 1 1/2 lengths in front of third-place Le Da Vida, ridden by Vincent Cheminaud.
"There were a lot of talented fillies in this race," Torres said. "We believe in our filly. She's been working great, and we knew she was going to give it her best today."
A total of 1.03 inches of rain fell on an already-soaked Oaklawn racetrack from midnight Friday through the Mistletoe post time of 4:14 p.m. It helped assure Diodoro and Torres that a front-running strategy was the way to go.
"The more I looked at the race, I thought we might look for the lead here," Diodoro said. "Then when the track came up the way it is, it was a no-brainer. There was no Plan B, it was just Plan A. It was get to the front and see if we could back up the pace a little bit, and she did an excellent job."
Lovely Ride led through the half in 48.20, with Coach in second, two lengths back, and two lengths in front of Will's Secret, then in third in front of fourth-place Le Da Vida. Their order would remain unchanged through the second half of the race.
"Definite plan was to go to the front," Torres said. "I talked to Robertino, and our plan was to break good, get the lead and get her to relax. It's a mile, a short stretch, so that was the plan."
It worked.
Lovely Ride led Coach by a length through six furlongs in 1:13.78 and opened up another length and a half through the finish.
"On days like today, you never can know," Talamo said.
Diodoro said it can be hard to ever truly know with fillies. He said he told Holleman after her effort at Woodbine that Lovely Ride might be done as a racehorse.
"She didn't like the track up there, but she's a hard-trying horse," Diodoro said. "She went up there and tried hard. It was hot up there, and she just soured. She was on the first load to get [to Oaklawn], and this horse just got better and better in a very short period. A couple of changes, and she came back around for us."