Everything Lovely Earns First Stakes Victory in The Very One
Pewter Stable and Armand Delaperriere’s Everything Lovely shook off early pressure from Eila and held off a trio of late challengers to earn a front-running one-length victory in Saturday’s $100,000 The Very One at historic Pimlico Race Course.
The 18th running of the five-furlong The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and older on turf was the first of eight stakes, four graded, worth $2.55 million in purses on a spectacular 14-race program highlighted by the 142nd running of the Preakness Stakes (G1), the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
It was the first career stakes win for Everything Lovely ($7.80), a 5-year-old Maryland-bred daughter of Pollard’s Vision, and the third for trainer Kate DeMasi following Merry Princess (2002) and Go Go Baby Go (2004).
Ridden by Hall of Famer-elect Javier Castellano for his third stakes victory of Preakness weekend, Everything Lovely was racing for the first time since a runner-up finish in the Ladies’ Turf Sprint Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park. She sizzled through a quarter-mile in 22.46 seconds and a half in 45.79, and finished up in 57.93 over a turf course rated good.
Sunnysami was a head in front of Elusive Joni in a blanket finish behind Everything Lovely, with another nose back to Pretty Perfection in fourth.
Everything Lovely set the pace for a half-mile in last year’s The Very One before fading to 11th, beaten 6 ¾ lengths, by multiple stakes winner Lady Shipman.
Winning Trainer Kathleen Demasi: “This is big for us, just for her future as a broodmare and knocking on the door against a lot of nice fillies. I just told Javier to break good. I thought she had the most natural speed in here. It’s real special. This is really big for me. I’ve always loved coming here.”
Winning Jockey Javier Castellano: “I loved the way she did it. She is a pretty sharp filly. I got a great spot, I knew there was a lot of speed outside me and I took advantage of being on the inside and took the lead. It was a good pace for her. She just galloped along. She can go in 21 (seconds for the first quarter of a mile) and she rated beautifully and I think that was the key to the race.”
Source: Maryland Jockey Club