Joint Return files Busher win

Joint Return easily schooled her Busher rivals (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) Main Line Racing Stable’s Joint Return was making her stakes bow on Saturday in the $100,000 Busher at Aqueduct and rallied widest of all rounding the turn to post a 4 1/4-length victory with jockey Kendrick Carmouche aboard. The John Servis-trained miss was sent off the 7-1 fifth pick in the seven-filly field and returned $16.80 for the win. Joint Return broke well from her inside post but settled in the rear of the field as last-out Busanda winner Fierce Boots took command on the backstretch. Carmouche allowed Joint Return to make her own way well off the rail through splits of :24 2/5, :50 1/5 and 1:15 4/5. Joint Return began picking it up entering the turn, and found herself widest of all as she joined Fierce Boots, Ketel Twist, Vero Amore and Ballylee running in tandem into the lane. A little encouragement from Carmouche was all it took for Joint Return to take over in midstretch and draw away to stop the clock in 1:48 2/5 for 1 1/16 miles on the fast inner dirt. “Today she was really on the muscle as I warmed her up,” Carmouche said. “We left there and she put me in a good position. Being four and a half, five lengths off of it is a good pace for her, and I thought from there they couldn’t beat her.”

Vero Amore found herself filling the runner-up spot once again after a nose
second in the January 12 Ruthless over a muddy Aqueduct track. It was another
half-length back to Ketel Twist, with Fierce Boots rounding out the top four.

“Good
race, first time around two turns and coming back on short notice like we did,”
trainer Butch Reid praised his charge, Vero Amore.
“She’s always game, gives it a try. The jock said she was fine and pulled up
fine. We’ll give her a month now and look for a better spot.”

Ballylee, a nice debut maiden winner on December 22, came next and was followed
under the wire by My Jimmy Chew Girl and Fleet of Gold. Fleet Sixteen and Wraith
were both withdrawn.

“She was in a tight spot a couple of times throughout
the race. She never really got a chance to do a whole lot of running when I did
think she needed to get herself going. It didn’t work out,” noted Tom Albertrani,
who conditions beaten 8-5 favorite Ballylee.

Joint Return not only earned the $60,000 winner’s share of the Busher, which
doubled her bankroll to $119,660 from a 4-3-0-1 career mark, but also garnered
10 points on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. The dark bay daughter of Include ran
third in her debut at Parx Racing last October 8 over a muddy, sealed track, but
returned November 19 to break her maiden by four lengths at that track over fast
going. Joint Return rounded out her time at Parx with a 4 3/4-length allowance
victory, going the same one-mile distance as her prior two, on New Year’s Day.

Bred in Kentucky by Virginia D. Moore & Include Syndicate, Joint Return was
purchased by her current connections for $60,000 as a Keeneland September
yearling. She is the first registered stakes winner out of the Brunswick mare
Brunswick Star, who is a half-sister to dual Grade 3 scorer American Halo.

Joint Return’s black-type rich female family includes English champion
*Gloria Nicky and that mare’s two-time French champion daughter Never Too Late;
1968 Irish Derby and English St. Leger hero Ribero; and German champion Ghanayim.

Lion D N A (inside) would not let Delightful Quality pass in the Correction (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) Following the Busher, Michael Dubb, Bethlehem Stables LLC and Gary Aisquith’s Lion D N A just kept her head in front of Delightful Quality to add the $100,000 Correction to her resume. The Rudy Rodriguez-conditioned five-year-old mare lived up to her 2-1 favoritism in the six-furlong contest to finish up in 1:11 1/5. Lion D N A and Baby J battled it out on the front end into the stretch, with the former opening up on her rival once hitting the lane. Delightful Quality was keeping in close attendance, however, and took up the challenge against Lion D N A before just falling short on the line. C.C. Lopez guided Lion D N A to a second straight stakes victory here, which improved her scorecard to 28-8-6-4, $335,898. The pair previously teamed up to take the Interborough on New Year’s Day at Aqueduct in Lion D N A’s second stakes attempt. “It looks like she’s getting a little better,” Rodriguez remarked. “I was very, very confident about her today, and we’re lucky she ran her race. She broke sharply today, so that was good.

“We claimed her because she could run for a $16,000 starter
allowance, but she looks like she is getting better. We can run her (in starter
allowance races) if she needs relief, but hopefully she’ll keep improving and
we’ll put her where she belongs.”

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