Kentucky: Brereton Jones, former governor of Kentucky, has named race horses after people he has met over the years at a hotel in Florida.
One of those people was a young woman named Maria, who is developmentally disabled.
“She is a lovely person with some problems, some serious problems, problems that her family has been able to help her with,” Brereton said. “But those problems will always exist.”
Brereton said he met Maria and “she was a lovely, lovely girl. So we named [the horse] Lovely Maria. And now she’s done better than all the others before her.”
Lovely Maria continued to perform Friday, winning the $1 million (Dh3.67 million) Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks for female horses at Churchill Downs before an announced record crowd of 123,763.
“She’s a filly just doing good,” trainer Larry Jones said.
Lovely Maria went off at 6-1. She was in fourth place at the half-mile, closed to third, then took over the lead in the stretch to finish 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Shook Up and I’m A Chatterbox, who is also trained by Jones.
Jockey Kerwin Clark, 56, won his first Grade 1 race last month aboard Lovely Maria in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. His second gave Brereton Jones his third Kentucky Oaks victory.
Lovely Maria paid $14.60, $7.80 and $5.40.
Stellar Wind, winner of last month’s Santa Anita Oaks, started as the favorite but finished fourth.
“She broke just a bit slow and that was a problem,” jockey Victor Espinoza said. “I tried to stay up with the horse next to me, but we were getting outrun.
“Then when we went into the first turn and the dirt was flying back, she started jumping up and down. This wasn’t her day.”
Trainer John Sadler said Stellar Wind “just got banged up out of the gate.”
“Sometimes you get a bad trip so there’s nothing you can really do,” he said. “We’ll take her back to California, freshen her up and then decide what to do with her next.”
- Los Angeles Times
