Call Me Love Gets Up in Time in River Memories

Trainer Christophe Clement’s persistence paid off July 11 as Call Me Love  notched her first win in seven starts against North American stakes company, edging favored Virginia Joy  by a neck in the $145,000 River Memories Stakes—the Belmont Park spring/summer meet closing day feature.

Owned by R Unicorn Stable, Call Me Love, a dual group winner in Italy, went 0-for-5 in her 2020 campaign, where she solely ran against graded stakes company. The 5-year-old chestnut mare has displayed a turnaround in form for her past two starts, defeating allowance optional claiming company going 1 1/16 miles May 23 at Belmont ahead of Sunday’s engagement.

Call Me Love broke from post 2 under jockey Junior Alvarado in the 1 1/2-mile contest for older fillies and mares as graded stakes-winning stablemate Mutamakina  assumed command in the early stages over the good going on the Widener turf course. Last year’s winner, Civil Union , tracked to her outside in second with Call Me Love along the rail in third position.

Mutamakina maintained her advantage as she slowed the tempo down through a half-mile in :47.80, while Alvarado had a tight hold aboard Call Me Love, with 6-5 favorite Virginia Joy inching closer to her outside.

Around the far turn, Call Me Love found herself last of five in the tightly packed field as Virginia Joy joined Mutamakina and Delta's Kingdom  in pursuit on the front end. Alvarado weaved Call Me Love several paths wide at the top of the stretch as Mutamakina, Virginia Joy, and Delta's Kingdom all battled for control. The latter threw in the towel just past the furlong marker as Mutamakina and Virginia Joy duked it out on the front end.

In the final strides, Call Me Love prevailed by a neck, completing the 12-furlong journey in 2:27.59. Virginia Joy finished a head to the better of Mutamakina, who rounded out the trifecta. Delta's Kingdom  and Civil Union completed the order of finish.

Pallas Athene , Luck Money , and main track only entrant Thankful  were scratched.

Call Me Love returned $17 for a $2 win wager. The River Memories conquest upped her lifetime earnings to $613,121 with a 7-2-3 record in 16 starts.

Clement said the stretch out in distance benefited the daughter of Sea The Stars .

"Call Me Love has been a bit unlucky in the past," said Clement, who closed out the meet with five stakes victories. "I’ve probably been running her a bit shorter than I should have done looking back at today's performance.

"Mutamakina always gives a good account of herself and even if she got beat today, I thought she ran a good race," Clement added. "The plan was for Junior to be comfortable on the lead or close to the pace and for (Joel) Rosario (aboard Mutamakina) to wait and be comfortable as well. But the other horse didn't break that well and Joel ended up on the lead and was very comfortable."

Alvarado, who also captured his fifth stakes win of the meet, said he was hoping to be on the lead, but he had to call an audible when Call Me Love broke a touch slow.

"This is the kind of race that you have to figure it out when they open the gate," Alvarado said. “I was supposed to be on the lead—even Christophe said I could be the speed of the race—but she broke a little flat-footed. Going a mile and a half, I didn’t want to rush her to go to the lead. She did it nice and quiet. Turning for home, she started picking up very nicely."

Call Me Love was bred in Great Britain by Grundy Bloodstock. She is out of the Rainbow Quest mare Fresnay, also dam of stakes winner Freetown, and her second dam is Prix de la Foret (G1) winner Field of Hope. Fresnay's latest progeny include Freely, a winning 3-year-old full sister to Call Me Love; French Spirit, a yearling Charm Spirit  filly; and an unnamed full brother to Call Me Love born in March.

Video: River Memories S. (BT)

Brown Tallies Sixth Consecutive Belmont Spring/Summer Training Title

As the meet wrapped up Sunday, Chad Brown registered 32 victories to finish as the leading trainer at the Belmont spring/summer meet for the sixth consecutive year, while Jose Ortiz won the riding the title with 59 victories during the 48-day meet that commenced on April 22. Klaravich Stables led all owners with 11 wins.

Among Brown’s accomplishments was a pair of grade 1 wins on the Belmont Stakes Day undercard June 5, as Domestic Spending  captured the Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes (G1T) and Search Results  took the Acorn Stakes (G1). Klaravich Stables owns both of those winners.

"It takes a lot of good horses, loyal and patient owners and, of course, the team," Brown said. "This meet wasn’t easy. We had a bad virus run through the barn and that really hampered us from winning more races, but we were able to overcome it. We really just focused on getting through the meet and getting the horses healthy. Exiting the meet now, we were able to still win a lot of meaningful races, and it looks like the horses are nice and healthy heading up to Saratoga, so I’m really proud of the job they did of just persevering through a turbulent couple of months."