Lovely Maria, I'm a Chatterbox Set for Alabama
Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks winner Lovely Maria and multiple graded stakes-winning stablemate I'm a Chatterbox galloped on the main track Thursday, their first trip over the surface since arriving from Delaware Park early Wednesday morning.
Trainer Larry Jones was aboard both horses, each of whom will make their next start in Saturday's 135th running of the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama for 3-year-old fillies at 1 ¼ miles.
"Chatterbox went out first, before the break, and Lovely Maria was after the break," Jones said. "They both galloped five-eighths and they both went to the paddock. It was just to kind of show them around and let them spend some time out and unwind a little. Both of them had good mornings."
Making her Spa debut, Lovely Maria is 5-1 in the program for the Alabama, while I'm a Chatterbox is the 5-2 second choice behind Curalina (7-5). I'm a Chatterbox beat Curalina by a nose in the Grade 1 CCA Oaks at Saratoga July 26 but was disqualified to second for interference.
"Lovely Maria has never had to carry her track with her, where Chatterbox does like some better than others. She doesn't like Churchill at all," Jones said. "Lovely Maria has run well pretty much at every track we've had her on. I'm not overly concerned with her ability to handle the track. I think both horses get the mile and a quarter OK. We'll see; that'll be the test of champions here."
Quick with a one-liner, a hearty laugh and broad smile, the 58-year-old Jones vanned both horses to Saratoga himself, a practice he has scaled back since being seriously injured in a fall during training hours on April 19, 2014. He suffered massive bleeding between his brain and skull, cracked ribs, a fractured wrist and bruised lung and still deals with bouts of dizziness. He was back on horses five weeks after the accident.
"That was the first thing I did," Jones said. "I was off for five weeks and then I started getting back. I got on my ponies for a couple weeks, but within two months I was getting back on thoroughbreds. I can get on 12 a day now. It is God's blessing, I guarantee you. That's all it is. It's all good. We're hanging on, taking it one day at a time."
Source: NYRA Communications