Lovely Ride Takes Pippin Foes on Merry Chase
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Photo: Coady Photography
Lovely Ride wins the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park
Robertino Diodoro recorded the 3,000th victory of his training career Jan. 7 when Arthurian won the second race at Oaklawn Park. The veteran conditioner then started marching toward 4,000 wins when Lovely Ride led throughout in the $150,000 Pippin Stakes later on the Saturday card.
A native of Canada, where he began his training career in 1995, Diodoro has seen his stable grow in quality in recent years, with Lovely Ride being one example. She joined him last winter and though initially slow to find her winning stride, has now rattled off two consecutive stakes victories, with the one-mile Mistletoe Stakes last month preceding the Pippin.
Though the Pippin Stakes was contested on a fast track—unlike the Mistletoe, which came in the slop—the Pippin was otherwise a repeat of that race. The 5-year-old daughter of Candy Ride again took charge from the start and proved uncatchable.
Setting splits of :23.32, :47.40, and 1:12.11 in the 1 1/16-mile race, Lovely Ride had enough left to turn back a couple of stretch challenges from pace-chasing Ice Orchid . She won by three-quarters of a length, timed in 1:44.04.
"There was a lot of speed, but the filly's been training beautifully. The way the track has been playing today, we had to (break) and go," jockey Christian Torres said. "She proved she can go any distance. She was beautiful. Today she proved she can run anywhere.”
Favored Le Da Vida was the only participant in the race for older fillies and mares to make up any meaningful ground. She settled for third, a length behind the runner-up, and was six lengths clear of Traverse in fourth.
The victory was the seventh in 15 starts for Lovely Ride ($8.60), who Bret Calhoun trained for owner-breeder Allied Racing Stable through January 2022. Owners John Holleman, Flying P Stable (Jason Provenzano), and Larry Nafe then acquired Lovely Ride and turned her over to Diodoro. She has made $508,573.
"I kept saying she had to step it up a length or two to beat this field today. I thought it was a little tougher field," Diodoro noted. "(I) said before she was going into the first race (the Mistletoe) great and came out of the race better than we thought, and was going into this race better than the first one.
"When things all work out like that, then the horses actually kind of make you look smart. It feels good. Like I said, she did step it up today."
Lovely Ride has now captured the first two legs of the Oaklawn route stakes series for fillies and mares that concludes with the April 15 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1). The next two legs are both graded: the Feb. 4 Bayakoa (G3) and the March 11 Azeri Stakes (G2).
Lovely Ride is one of two black-type runners out of the graded-winning Tiznow mare Lovely Lil , the other being 2021 Del Mar Futurity (G1) show finisher American Xperiment (Nyquist ), her most recent progeny. Her four foals have all raced, with three victorious.