with files from Santa Anita media
Lightly raced and cast in her first Grade I assignment, Hard Not to Love rallied from well off the pace to register a 2 ¼ length win over odds-on favorite Bellafina in Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 La Brea Stakes at Santa Anita. Ridden by Mike Smith and trained by John Shirreffs, Hard Not to Love got seven furlongs in 1:22.17, good for a 102 Beyer Speed Figure, while providing Smith with his 216th career Grade I win, tying him with retired Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey.
Last with three furlongs to run, Hard Not to Love made an eye catching run around the far turn and collared Bellafina, who had fought off a serious challenge from Mother Mother, inside the sixteenth pole to win going away as Smith emulated Bailey’s horizontal “Cigar” fist pump at the wire.
In her first pairing with Smith, Hard Not to Love, who took a six furlong allowance here by three quarters of a length on Oct. 25, was off at 11-1 and paid $25.20, $6.60 and $4.20.
Hard Not to Love, an Ontario-Canadian-bred daughter of Hard Spun – Loving Vidication by Vindication, picked up $180,000 for the win, increasing her earnings to $288,480.
A half sister to Horse of the Year Wonder Gadot, Hard Not to Love was bred by David Anderson’s Anderson Farms and she has four wins from five overall starts.
The winning owners are Mercedes Stables LLC, West Point Thoroughbreds, Scott Dilworth, Dottie Ingordo, David and Steve Mooney.
Mike Smith – “My hat’s off to West Point Thoroughbreds, John Shirreffs and the whole barn, so many people. They work so hard with this mare. She has one eye (her right) so she gets a little bit of anxiety at times. We work hard with her and it’s great to see the hard work that we put in pay off today.
John Shirreffs “Yes, she was really a handful going to the gate. She only has the one eye (her right), and when she gets nervous, she tends to spin around to see. This was a great race to win. For a filly to win a Grade I, that’s like a PhD, so it makes it especially fulfilling.”
“Mike (Smith) has really made a difference with her. When he made the decision to ride her, he put his reputation as a horseman on the line. I think that made this even more special.”
LOVING VINDICATION, a Sovereign Award nominated broodmare in 2018, is sure to be on the shortlist for the 2019 awards (voting begins early January). She was purchased for paid $180,000 at the 2011 Keeneland January sale. Her first foal was Solemn Tribute (Medaglia d’Oro), a $385,000 KEESEP yearling who would go on to become a stakes winner and graded stakes placed. Three seasons later came Wonder Gadot (Medaglia
d’Oro), who Anderson sold for $80,000 as a KEESEP yearling. She won the Queen’s Plate and was a multiple champion before being sold for $2 million to Japan at auction this past November.
Anderson sold Loving Vindication’s unraced 2-year-old Loch Garman (Bodemeister) for $300,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton October sale, and then bought back the mare for $1.45 million in that same sales ring that November. Loving Vindication, has a 2018 Nyquist filly, a 2019 Curlin colt and she is in foal to medaglia D’Oro.
More from Races:
