Loved (Medaglia d’Oro x Velvety) and Fuente Ovejuna (GB) (Lope de Vega (IRE) x Lipstick Rose (IRE)) both secured their first stakes wins at Indiana on Saturday July 6th, 2024.
Loved was first up to secure Black Type with an emphatic victory in the Mari Hulman George Memorial Handicap. The five year old mare stalked the pace for most of the race before taking command at the top of the stretch and winning comfortably under a hand ride from jockey Florent Geroux. She is the second Stakes winner out of the mare Velvety, who also produced Brendan Walsh Racing’s first Grade One winner Maxfield (Street Sense x Velvety). Loved now boasts a record of four wins from seven starts with over $300k in earnings.
Fuente Ovejuna (GB) followed her stablemate with a hard fought victory in the Indiana General Assembly Distaff Handicap. The chestnut mare broke alertly and settled in fourth position around the first turn. She traveled strongly on the inside under jockey Corey Lanerie through the backstretch and around the far turn. Lanerie swung the five year old mare to the middle of the track at the top of the stretch and she finished strongly to win by a head on the line. Fuente Ovejuna (GB) has been knocking at the door for a Stakes win since being imported to the USA and we are pleased to have achieved that with her this weekend.
Congratulations to all the winning connections and especially to ever patient owners Godolphin and Kip Knelman’s Farfellow Farms! We look forward to seeing what these talented mares can achieve through the rest of this season.
