I'm a Chatterbox Heads Up Houston Ladies

After weeks of uncertainty because of the quarantine at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, multiple grade 1 winner I'm a Chatterbox will make her seasonal debut as scheduled in the $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) at Sam Houston Race Park Jan. 29.

Trainer Larry Jones has been pointing the 5-year-old daughter of Munnings   to the 1 1/16-mile Houston Ladies since December, but nearly had to adjust course when the entire Fair Grounds backstretch was put under quarantine due to an outbreak of equine herpesvirus. On the chance that I'm a Chatterbox would not be able to get out of New Orleans in time to make the Houston Ladies, she was entered in the Jan. 21 $75,000 Marie J. Krantz Stakes on the turf at Fair Grounds, but scratched out of that spot when word came down that the quarantine would be lifted Jan. 22.

WINCZE HUGHES: I'm a Chattebox Works for Houston Ladies

Owned and bred by Carolyn and Fletcher Gray, I'm a Chatterbox will be making her first start since running fifth in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) Nov. 4. She is also attempting to give Jones his third winner in the Houston Ladies as he previously saddled 2013 heroine Joyful Victory and 2015 winner Cassatt.

Though she has had the misfortune of knocking heads against some of the best distaffers in recent years, I'm a Chatterbox had held her own in elite company. As a 3-year-old, she captured the 2015 Cotillion Stakes (G1) and last year saw her notch victories in the Delaware Handicap (G1) and Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (G1).

BALAN: I'm a Chatterbox Dominant in Spinster

"She's doing great," Carolyn Gray said. "She's just feeling good and ready to go. She's beaten a lot of them and raced with a lot of them so we're ready for another year as long as she is. As we've said all along, what could be better than having a mare like this. Once she says 'I've had enough' we're not going to push it but she really likes to race. She's always been game."

I'm a Chatterbox was installed as the 6-5 morning-line choice out of post  No. 4 for the Houston Ladies and will have regular rider Florent Geroux in the irons.

Graded stakes winner Family Tree lines up as the biggest challenge to I'm a Chatterbox and enters off an eye-catching 8 1/2-length win in the Zia Park Oaks Nov. 23. The daughter of Smart Strike won the Iowa Oaks (G3) and Indiana Oaks (G2) last year and has also been working steadily at Fair Grounds.

Todd Pletcher trainee Unbridled Mo heads into the Houston Ladies having won four of six starts, but looks to rebound after finishing sixth in the Comely Stakes (G3) Nov. 26.