I’m a Chatterbox, Lovely Maria breeze five furlongs for Oaks

I’m a Chatterbox skimmed over the Churchill main track on Sunday (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography)

Four fillies put in their final major moves for Friday’s $1
million Kentucky Oaks (G1) over Churchill Downs’ fast main track on Sunday,
including trainer Larry Jones’ two hopefuls who just arrived at the track late
Friday afternoon.

Fair Grounds
Oaks (G2) heroine I’m a Chatterbox (Munnings) and Ashland S. (G1) victress Lovely Maria
(Majesticperfection) each breezed five furlongs with their race riders up. I’m a
Chatterbox went first in 1:01, followed seconds later by Lovely Maria in
:59 3/5.

“They both did well,” said Jones, already a two-time winner of the Kentucky
Oaks. “Both jockeys came back grinning.”

I’m a Chatterbox, ridden by regular jockey Florent Geroux,
recorded splits of :11 4/5, :23 4/5 and :36, with a six-furlong gallop out in
1:14 2/5. The work was the fifth fastest of 32 at the distance.

“It was kind of the way she worked when she first came in
(to the barn at Fair Grounds in December),” Jones said. “She got real brilliant
in her works down in New Orleans. This was a little slower than she’d been
working. I just don’t know if she takes to Churchill as well but we’ll see.”

Larry Jones posing with Lovely Maria, whose Sunday work he termed “sparkling” (Keeneland Photo)

“Lovely Maria just worked sparkling,” Jones praised. “Every eighth was just
getting faster and we’re real happy with her. She’s just getting on her game
right now.”

Lovely Maria also captured her initial start, but did so for Jones at
Delaware Park last September. She closed out her juvenile campaign three races
later with a fourth-placing in her first try against stakes company at Remington
Park in mid-December. The bay filly went on to take an allowance/optional
claimer and run second to I’m a Chatterbox in the Rachel Alexandra S. (G3) at
Fair Grounds before her Ashland score.

Jones said he wasn’t looking for a specific
time from his fillies and didn’t even bother with suggestions for either of the
jockeys, who have been working with these horses all winter.

“They both know what to do,” Jones said of Geroux and Clark. “If I have to
give instructions by now then I’ve got the wrong riders. That’s what’s great
about bringing your team in. They know the game plan, they know what they’ve
done, and obviously it’s been working for them.”

This year’s Kentucky Oaks is comprised of a deep field of
fillies, many of whom are coming off impressive wins.

“You could make a case
for every horse in this race,” Jones admitted. “They all have something on their
resume that shows they’re capable of winning.”

Puca pleased trainer Bill Mott with her final major move for the Oaks (Rickelle Nelson/Horsephotos.com)

“It was very similar to the work a week ago,” trainer Bill Mott said. “She
went much the same. I was hoping that she’d work as well or better and she
looked like she finished up her work nicely but she was all up on the bridle and
willing to do it, moving well, galloped out well, came back good.”

This was the second straight time Puca worked in company
with Japan, who finished in :48 and is entered in Thursday’s 8TH race.

“I put him in behind just because he needs a little
education,” Mott said. “He’s a little green. They worked nicely together. I
thought they were a good team last week and it worked out well so we just did
the same thing again. Nothing fancy.”

Puca hasn’t won since breaking her maiden in October but
went from that race straight into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and has
only faced top company since.

“If you look at speed figures she maybe hasn’t been as good
as some of the others but visually, between the Breeders’ Cup and her last race
being pretty good…if she gets an honest pace that could help,” Mott said.

Asmussen expects Shook Up to improve in the Oaks (Rickelle Nelson/Horsephotos.com)

“She’s doing well,” Asmussen said. “Handled good, didn’t
lay in. So all’s well.”

In two of her races, including a Fair Grounds allowance/optional claimer
race in which she finished second to Lovely Maria, Shook Up lugged in. In that
race, she had the No. 1 post position and was jammed along the inside behind a
slow pace.

“Her motor’s running,” Asmussen explained. “She gets a little
anxious. And when she does, that seems to be what happens. I think it’s when she
gets to pulling. That day (in the allowance race), first time out (at Fair
Grounds), it was sloppy and all that. She had drawn (No.) 1. They cleared her
pretty easy, but then they backed it up right into her, and it was
circumstances.

“I think you get these fillies together; they’re going to move on.
So I think the circumstances that day were they cleared her from the outside,
slowed it down and just kind of backed it up in her face, and then she was on
the bridle.”

But in the Fair Grounds Oaks in her most recent
start, Shook Up ran smoothly all the way en route to a second-place finish
behind I’m a Chatterbox.

“She handled nice and everything,” Asmussen said.

He said he expects Shook Up to improve in the Kentucky Oaks.

“I expect her to run the race of her life,” he said. “And it’s going to take
that — at least that.”

Include Betty is described as a “happy-go-lucky filly” (Keeneland/Coady Photography)

Churchill Downs’ track kitchen is located on the
backstretch directly across from the half-mile pole.

“She’s a happy-go-lucky filly and she’s really at the top
of her game right now,” Homeister continued. “She looks amazing. She came out of
the Fantasy full of confidence. She’s not a big filly but she’s got a big heart
and a huge stride.”

Homeister, 42, has 2,750 career wins and won an Eclipse
Award as the outstanding apprentice jockey of 1992. She has been working horses
at Churchill over the weekend to get a feel for the track and has mounts Wednesday and Thursday in advance of the Oaks Day card.

“I’m excited because I really believe I have a big chance
in this race,” Homeister said of the Oaks. “Tom Proctor is one of the best
trainers in the country, of all-time. I’ve ridden for him for 20 years and have
so much confidence in him. And I have so much confidence in her, too. I believe
we’re going to have a really good race.”

Fantasy runner-up Oceanwave (Harlan’s Holiday) jogged one mile after the renovation break
Sunday with regular
exercise rider Santos Rivera aboard.

“Everything’s beautiful,” trainer Wayne
Catalano reported later in the morning.

Sunday’s jog was Oceanwave’s first appearance back to the track since a 1:02
five-furlong maintenance breeze on Friday that received some less-than-glowing
reviews from the racing media.