Plenty to Love About I Love Me’s BC Juvenile Fillies Turf Win

By Nynl Stables on November 7, 2021

BC Juvenile Fillies Turf (Grade 1)- $1,000.000 Purse
DMR- For Fillies Two Years Old
One Mile on the Turf
November 5, 2021

With as much as Mb Stables has done in the game, there is not a lot that he actually has not accomplished, at least once. One of those races that he had not yet won was the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, perhaps a mild surprise since he does so well in the BC Juvenile Fillies. Well, we can now cross this one as I Love Me, a homebred by Centerpiece, comes through with a length victory. After winning the Natalma, she’s surely an exciting one to watch. Not sure why I didn’t make her one of my picks, likely more a factor of writing up thirteen horses after her and forgetting about her on the rail. She would be the post time favorite, so the overlook here did not really matter, plenty to like with this filly. Both Mb Stables and jockey C J Hernandez are first time winners of this race. Congratulations! The time of the win was 1:33.21. Let’s take a look!

(¼ Mile- :23.21)- Blac Widow would be the quickest out of the gate, and would jump out to an uncontested lead of almost two full lengths for Maxmillion Farm. Behind her, we would have a group of four looking to get that ideal stalking trip. On the rail, our eventual winner, I Love Me for Mb Stables, has great track position, and so does Zola, a rival trained by Royalty Stables that she would be seeing near her throughout. Path Of Glory is in the third lane for Smokey Stover and Hoodoo Chase takes the outside here for Alydar Stables. Next up, in the midpack role, we have another group of four. This consists of, from inside to outside, Tropical Mama (Allinthegate), Catawba (Sccj Stables), Molecule (D J C Racing Stables), and Crack America (Gdp Inc). Next comes Ginger Lucy (The Sidley Stud), followed by the three trailers, Cracks (Fractious), Crepellana (YME Stable), Ode To My Family (Arindel), and Be Genuine (Hunterman Stable).

(½ Mile- :46.48)- The second quarter mile is run in a very similar fraction as the first quarter was, and Blac Widow runs by herself on the front end into the backstretch. We see some shuffling of position going on behind her, even if it did not result in many passes. I Love Me and Zola, continue to match each other stride for stride and have pulled away a bit from Path Of Glory and Hoodoo Chase. This would allow both of these to have room to make a pass for the lead without interference when they would decide it was time to strike. In the middle of the field, Tropical Mama moved up from those she was running with as well, and this allowed her to keep the same kind of distance behind I Love Me that she had in the opening quarter. Catawba, Molecule, and Crack America were all still maintaining their position in the middle of the field while not being ready to make an advance. Further back, Ginger Lucy had the ability to gain some ground on the rail if she desired, and we were not seeing much yet from Crackz, Crepellana, and Ode To My Family. Be Genuine was even further back.

(Top of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- Towards the end of the backstretch, Zola seemed to make the first move between her and I Love Me as to who was going to try and pass Blac Widow first. For a moment, Zola was in front by a neck, but as they moved into the turn this is where I Love Me was the most impressive. Running between Blac Widow and Zola, I Love Me quickly pulled back even with Zola, but made the pass of that one, who was also running well at this time, look easy. With each stride in the turn, she pulled away even more, and by the time they hit the top of the stretch, she had a length on Zola. Meanwhile, Blac Widow had enough and was packing it in. For the moment, she was still third, as no one else was decisive in charging forward. Path Of Glory and Hoodoo Chase seemed to be the next ones that move into third with Tropical Mama also positioned well while needing to come off the rail. Crack America was making an outside move and had joined that group. Molecule was behind this group of five, in the fourth lane and needing to get going now. Catawba was losing ground to these and everyone else had a massive task ahead of them if they were going to pull it off.

(Finish- 1:33.21)- In the stretch, all that was left to do was watch I Love Me run, as she pulled away from Zola and there was no one else coming. While at first, it seemed like just another BC win for Mb Stables, it is a big one for him since this is a race that he had never won before. Zola was as definitive of a second place finisher as I Love Me was a winner. They began to line up behind them in the battle to complete the trifecta and grab a good portion of the purse, but that’s all it was going to be. Molecule prevails there over Crack America as those two get a good sum of money for not really being a threat to win the race. Hoodoo Chase was fifth, followed by Path Of Glory, Tropical Mama and Ginger Lucy. Everyone else was at least a second behind the winner, with Catawba, Blac Widow, and Be Genuine would be next. Behind them, Ode To My Family, Crepellana and Crackz were all beaten by at least ten lengths.

About The Winner- I Love Me, trained by Mb Stables and ridden to victory by C J Hernandez, is a two year old filly by Centerpiece and is out of Exactly Like That. She was bred by Mb Stables in California as a yearling, and they have been together throughout. Congratulations to the connections! The win is her third in six starts, and her second stake win, each of which are graded. Her career earnings are now $917.800.

Horse Name

Owner Name

Jockey

Odds

Fin

Time

SRF

I Love Me

Mb Stables

Hernandez C J

5.55

1¹