Jones Ready to Try I'm a Chatterbox on Turf

Sometime last year, trainer Wayne Catalano came up to Larry Jones as I'm a Chatterbox was going through a workout, except he didn't know it was the three-time grade 1 winner out on the track.

"Was that a grass horse that just went by, there?" Catalano asked Jones, who was watching from aboard his pony. "Looks like a nice grass horse."

Jones remembered the moment fondly March 1, a few days before the 5-year-old Munnings   mare will make her first turf start in an optional-claiming allowance March 4 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

"I have a lot of respect for Wayne, who has had his share of grass runners," Jones said of Catalano. "If Wayne knows what he's talking about, she'll be just fine."

Practically everything Jones says comes with a joking twang, including comments on his own ability to train turf horses.

"If she was with a turf trainer, I'm sure she'd do fine on the turf," Jones said. "I don't do so great on the turf, so if she runs well on there, you'll know it's her, not me."

It wasn't just Catalano's observations, however, that persuaded I'm a Chatterbox's connections to try the grass. Before Fletcher and Carolyn Gray's homebred broke through to win her first stakes in the 2015 Silverbulletday, the plan was to make her a grass horse, but the eight-length score was enough to convince Jones to keep her on dirt at Fair Grounds, where she went on to win the Rachel Alexandra (G3) and Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) that year.

I'm a Chatterbox also has turf pedigree not lost on her connections. Her dam, Chit Chatter, won an allowance on turf and I'm a Chatterbox's half-brother—3-year-old Zinger (by The Factor  ), who is also trained by Jones—broke his maiden on the Fair Grounds grass in January.

The move to grass almost certainly won't be permanent, but if it goes well, it could accomplish multiple goals. A graded win on turf would increase the value of I'm a Chatterbox as a broodmare as well as the foals she will produce, but it also scratches an itch her connections have wondered about and gives her a variety of opportunities for the rest of her 5-year-old campaign. She began 2017 with a second-place finish in the Jan. 29 Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (G3) at Sam Houston Race Park.

"It's not as important as it is for a stallion, but if she can become a graded stakes winner on the turf, that'd be great," Jones said. "We had another horse who we thought was a grass horse and we ran him on the dirt—he went by the name of Hard Spun  . Considering how well his babies have run on turf, we might have missed an opportunity there."

That's not to say top-level grass races are going to be easy by any means.

"There's a horse out there named Tepin, and others like Catch a Glimpse and whoever Chad Brown sends out there, so that division is a tough spot," Jones said. "But we don't have any immediate plans for her and they don't allow turf workers at Fair Grounds, so this is a good opportunity to try her."