An Overnight Sensation Built On Rock

They're calling him Billy The Kid. He only got his licence in October but when he left the all-weather circuit last month, for a three-week stint in Florida, he was Britain's leading jockey with 23 wins from 98 mounts in January. And, for another week anyway, he's just 16 years old.

It's so extraordinary that Billy Loughnane has even been featured on the evening news by the BBC, a gratifying departure from the indifference of mainstream media to all but the least flattering tales of the Turf.

On the face of it, he has risen without trace. But actually this implausibly compressed breakout has been a long time in the making–and not merely in terms of the proportion of Billy's young life fanatically dedicated to a precocious sense of vocation. Because before Mark Loughnane suddenly found himself being described as Billy's father, Billy was Mark Loughnane's son. And you can be certain of one thing: whatever Billy's future may hold, his prospects are immeasurably enhanced by the decades of unsung daily endeavour that have taken a whole family to this point.

Naturally Mark is proud to see the blossoming of a talent he has long known to be out of the ordinary. But it has not just been Billy's apprentice claim that has driven the stable's prolific start to 2023, with 17 winners already from only 76 runners. (Other jockeys have ridden seven of those, from 41 starters.) To put that in context, Mark's best campaign to date comprised 41 wins in 2021.

And if you come and visit Rock Farm Stables, in a glorious bowl of undulating Worcestershire countryside, it all stands to reason. After a long education in old-school jumping yards, both sides of the Irish Sea, Mark has had to make several fresh starts since going solo in 2002. And it is only in coming to this sumptuous, purpose-built facility, five years ago, that he has finally been able to give full rein to the talent and passion so immediately apparent in his adolescent son.

Mark Loughnane | Liz Vanegas de Quickenden

“It's taken me 30, 40 years in the industry to get to where I am today,” Mark acknowledges. “This place is a five-star hotel for these horses and we're very, very lucky. We've got everything here and in the last couple of years we're just starting to build to a better grade of a horse.

“It's a slow burn. I wish I had all this 20 years ago. But when you start with zero, and have to make your own way, you can only build gradually. When the recession hit, I was coming over from Ireland to Wolverhampton with a 50% strike-rate, win and place. And Clare said, 'Why don't we come over?' So we started again. That was just 10 years ago. We got in the truck, there were 10 horses, an Alsatian and our two boys.”

Mark had five years in Staffordshire but the game-changer was the chance to move into a yard established by Steve and Anita Mares. Every facility was tailormade in consultation with Mark–including uphill and round gallops, and copious turnout paddocks–and now 60 heads peer from stalls in the American barn. Mark has been in the game too long to think that he will have the Guineas favourite this time next year, but nor should his climbing graph-lines be neglected as incidental to the explosive start made by Billy to his own career.

“People kind of put me down as an all-weather trainer,” Mark says with a shrug. “That doesn't annoy me or anything. But you have to cut your cloth according to the horses you get. It's very hard to get to the next level, but hopefully we'll have a few more grass horses this year. We've a very loyal bunch of owners, I have a lot of good people around me, and I'm sure a good one will come in the door. You just have to say to yourself that every horse that comes into this yard could be the one.”

Father and son could not have taken more contrasting routes into the racing game. Billy is the ultimate example of nature and nurture combining to make his career feel inevitable from boyhood. Mark, however, had no background whatsoever in the sport, beyond his father replacing flattened hurdles and treading down turf at their local track, Thurles.

“And we'd go up the next day and muck out all the boxes and put back all the divots,” Mark recalls. “Then I went into a stable one day and rubbed one on the head, and that was it. I never went back to school. I had my first job with Tommy Stack when I was 15 and have never been away from them since.”

For Billy to prove such a natural, presumably there was always something latent in Mark too. After all, his wife Clare knew nothing at all about horses albeit they happened to meet at Cheltenham races (and he now credits her with a huge role in the operation of the yard). But it's hard to identify the nature or source of that flair for the horse, somehow discovered by Mark and so obviously inherited by Billy.

“Since Billy was born he was on my heels and, for him, there was no way out,” Mark reflects. “He always wanted it. For me, when I was young, I suppose it was that no matter what sport I tried, I'd try to be the best. If I was no good, I'd try something else. I was lucky enough to ride a few winners, not many, but also to work for a lot of good men. And back in the day, if you were interested, you'd learn. Every yard I went into, I went in as an ordinary lad and most of the time ended up probably running it, or assistant.”

The farm's uphill gallop | Liz Vanegas de Quickenden

He had a key role, for instance, in Terry Casey's preparation of 1996 Grand National winner Rough Quest. Casey had his troubles in too short a life, but Mark learned a lot from him, as from other mentors Edward O'Grady, Enda Bolger and, above all, Pat Doyle.

“Pat's attention to detail was unreal,” he says. “I did three and a half years with him. If you got something wrong, he let you know! Those days are gone now. The kids coming into it now, I don't think it's the same. So I feel I've very lucky in that sphere, and I'm still very friendly with a lot of the trainers I worked for.”

When setting up on his own, Mark had two winners at the Galway Festival in his first week. If that instant success proved rather a mirage, nor was it an obvious turning point when, sitting in Ron Harris's kitchen 19 years ago, one of his fellow trainer's owners drove up. When Mark moved over the water, Steve Mares supported him with a couple of horses before one day approaching him, out of the blue, about running a new stable.

After rejecting another site, they drove into a farm in the hamlet of Rock and Mark was immediately excited by its potential.

“I was able to come in and design the whole place,” Mark says gratefully. “Steve took a year out of work and oversaw the whole thing. When you've been in different yards all your life, you see good things and bad things everywhere. And I've tried to take the best points and this is the result.”

Now Billy is helping to put the place on the map, too. But all his father's experience certainly told in the seasoned decision to put the brakes on a runaway train: his claim is already down to 5lbs, and needed conserving for the turf season.  Already, after all, their careful strategy has required constant revision.

“We just planned that he'd get his license in October and move him into the all-weather season with me, because that's when my horses have tended to thrive,” Mark explains. “We thought he could ride eight or 10 winners through the winter and tip away, nice and steady, and then we'd get him onto the grass.

“But then it just took off. We were going to stop him after 15 but then two days later he was at 20. So we said, okay, 25. But then in that week he rode nine winners. So I rang Rodi and his agent [Sashi Righton] and said, 'Lads, that's it, we have to stop.' I'm glad we did keep him going, because that meant he could ride a winner for Mr. Appleby in the Godolphin colours.

“But [otherwise] it has all happened very quickly, too quickly. And that's why we decided to stop. And instead of Billy being here, grafting and being driven mad watching horses he could be winning on, to send him over to America.”

Though Billy always stood out on the pony circuit, crucially he was first obliged to master principles of equitation in the show ring. He was always eager for the next step; Mark was always making him wait. Naturally there are benefits and burdens for both, when your principal counsellor and critic is also your father. Mark does remember shouting at Billy after he let one up the inside in a pony race at Nottingham, but Clare and Billy's brother Jack (himself a gifted footballer) ensure they all remain family first. And if Billy were to win the Derby itself, that won't beat the feeling they shared when he won his first pony race at Cocklebarrow point-to-point, in the mud, the little pony led in proudly by Mark's long-serving assistant Steve Davies.

“You couldn't buy that feeling for millions,” Mark says. “All along, I knew his talent. And I kept saying to Clare, 'I'm not letting him do it until he's ready.' But when we did start, we hit the ground running: he stood out from the first day.”

Now Billy has completed another valuable module in his education with this stint in Florida, riding trackwork at Palm Meadows for Anna Meah–whose husband David, the bloodstock agent, is an old collaborator of Mark's.

“A massive learning experience,” Billy confirms. “The way they do everything out there is completely different. So it was an amazing opportunity and I feel like I've learned loads. Obviously dirt's completely different to work on, and they probably don't do as much as we would, here, because it's a much more tiring surface.”

He admits that riding against the clock was a challenge. “For the first couple of days anyway!” he says. “The first day I was able to watch their riders doing it for an hour but then David [Meah] just fired me straight on a horse. But I think I got the hang of it in the end…”

Rock Farm from the air | Liz Vanegas de Quickenden

Mark doesn't allow that modesty to pass, revealing that Billy's services were soon being requested by several other barns. On the day of our visit, the family had only just got back from their trip to Miami to collect Billy. Despite the long flight, Billy had leaped from the car to work five horses and now, following a gym session, here he was on the equicizer, taking remote tuition from instructor Rodi Greene.

Such is his dedication. But that's standard to the whole environment. Greene himself, for instance, recently drove from Devon to set up the simulator in the Wolverhampton car park, so that they could have a session before the meeting–before naturally staying to observe his protégé to the last race.

“To be the best, you need to be all that, don't you?” he says. “But it's the same for us trainers, down the yard at six every morning. And my head man's there before me, feeding. And at midnight you're coming back from Newcastle without a winner. Then up again. Eat, sleep, race, repeat.

“But with Billy, this is 16 years in the making. He's been watching his weight since he's 13. You ask a kid not to eat chocolate at 13! I'd say, 'Go on, have a milkshake.' But no, he doesn't want it. So he's not pushed into it. He was just hungry for it. He's a million times better than I was, at that age. And he's hungrier, too.”

Which is saying plenty, because here is a man whose ambition is undiminished by all the familiar ups and downs of his calling.

“We've grafted, me and my wife, and there'd be days we had nothing,” Mark says. “But the minute we get a winner, be it a seller at Wolverhampton, we come back on cloud nine. And then we're back into it next day, hungry to do it again. It's been a long slog. But looking at what we're reaping now–where we live, and the place we're in, and watching Billy–makes all the struggles feel worthwhile.”

But nobody will be complacent, nor losing perspective.

“When there's an ambulance following you around every day, everything can change very quickly,” Mark says. “So we just take each day as it comes. Listen, I've been very lucky and I've met good people on my way. And Billy is lucky now that he's got my contacts, and a lot of people supporting him. Obviously, he has to be talented as well. So it's one step at a time. But yes, at the minute, we're living the dream.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Achard Restarts His Career, Claims His First Graded Win

Jockey Alex Achard may have caught some flack from his fellow riders over his celebration in the winning photograph from last Saturday's Grade 3 Chicago Stakes at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill., but he hasn't let that bother him. After all, it's not every day you get your first graded stakes victory.

“A lot of people made fun of that, but I don't really mind,” the 30-year-old Achard said. “I was so happy. I was confident before the race, but obviously it wasn't easy. 

“When I handicapped the race, Brad Cox's horse was really the horse to beat and after that the race was quite open; I guess I got such a good trip so that's probably where I won the race.

“At that moment (at the finish line) I wasn't really thinking about anything, I was just happy.”

Achard began his riding career in his native France, but made the decision to move to the United States in 2018. He knew the opportunities were more plentiful, but he didn't know which part of the country to try first. 

“I had no clue where to go, absolutely no clue,” Achard said, laughing. “I'd been to the U.S. once before, galloping in California one winter, and when things weren't working out in France after I lost the claim, I knew I wanted to come back to the U.S.

“I called Flo[rent Geroux], even though I didn't know him very well, because when he left there was when I was starting to ride, so we kind of crossed paths with each other. I just knew who he was, and that he was successful.”

Geroux suggested Indiana because the grouping of racetracks in the region are all within driving or short flight distance, Achard said.

It's taken several years to build up his business. When he first arrived, the jockey couldn't find an agent and wound up making his living as an exercise rider.

“Obviously in France I did well years ago, but you restart from the bottom here,” Achard said. “Nobody knows you or what you've done in your own country. It was harder than I thought, I just thought I'd find an agent and it would be all right. When I couldn't find anyone, I just started galloping for Tom Amoss in Indiana, breezing most of his workers. He sent me to Saratoga for the summer with a string of 10 to 12 horses. Obviously I didn't race, but it was a great experience.”

After Achard returned to Indiana, he found an agent and picked up a few mounts at the end of the 2018 meet. He followed the local circuit to Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. for the winter, and earned a pair of seconds that December, but it wasn't until March of 2019 that Achard finally got his first win in the U.S.

He wound up winning 17 races in 2019, and last year, despite the struggles and restrictions implemented by the pandemic, Achard improved his statistics to win 33 races and top $1 million in earnings. 

Achard's first stakes win came in late summer of 2020 at Indiana Grand, winning the $100,000 Indiana First Lady Stakes on Aug. 26 aboard Wellington Wonder for trainer Michelle Lovell.

“I'm so happy for Alex,” Lovell told Indiana Grand's publicity department after that win. “When he first got here, I saw him win for someone else and thought he could really ride. He has always liked this filly and he knows her really well. She only has one big stride and he knows how to time his move. He works so hard, so I'm glad to see him get his first stakes win.”

In 2021, Achard has already racked up 23 wins. He has able to travel around the Midwest much more due to the relaxing of COVID-19 restrictions, and made a specific request to his agent to try to find mounts at Arlington Park.

“I just told my agent at the beginning of the year, this is the last year of Arlington, and I've never been and I want to see it,” Achard said. “I told her, 'I want to ride there before it's gone, even if the horse has three legs!' I had just heard so many good things about it, and it's really beautiful. It's so sad to think that this might be the last year.”

The possibility of shutting down Arlington reminded Achard of a similar situation in France.

“They just did that to a big track in Paris last year, a beautiful racetrack where you could run 1 ¼ miles straight,” he explained. “There were only two racetracks in Europe where you can do that, Newmarket being the other, but they just shut down the track last year. That was pretty sad.”

Still, it was that drive to see Arlington Park, plus his willingness and desire to ride races at every available opportunity, that earned him the mount aboard the Anna Meah-trained Abby Hatcher in the Chicago Stakes.

The G3 was Meah's first graded stakes win as well, and she credited a clever ride from Achard in her celebratory social media post.

Though he wasn't raised in the sport of horse racing, Achard comes by his love of horses and competition naturally. Both his parents are involved in show jumping in France, and for a time during his youth they also exercised racehorses in the mornings.

“Actually, I grew up with horses, but I never wanted to learn how to ride because I was around horses every day and I wasn't interested in riding,” Achard revealed. “It came up way later, when I started riding at 13 or 14, but I could have been on the horses at probably three years old.

“I just fell in love with the horses, and that's the main thing you need. I also love racing, the competition of it, so it's a good match for me.”

Looking forward, Achard says he can't compare himself to the success of his fellow countrymen Julien Leparoux, Geroux, or even Flavien Prat, with whom he did ride a bit in France. 

“What I want is to ride the most winners I can, obviously if they are good races it's even better,” Achard said. “I still have some work to do, but I don't put a lot of pressure on myself, I just try to do my thing. I don't compare myself to them, but if I can do some of what they've accomplished, that would be amazing.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Achard Restarts His Career, Claims His First Graded Win appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Meah Adding Horsepower to Chrome Finish

She's still only 28, and it isn't three years since she started training. Yet a first graded stakes success for Anna Meah last weekend was welcomed with a depth of perspective extending both forward and back.

On the one hand, she has always been a woman in a hurry: however crammed the automobile she drove south from Washington in December 2012, her heart set on finding a backstretch job in California, the years since have been no less packed with experience. Indeed, the veteran trainer of a small string at Hollywood Park who hired Meah as assistant the following April also launched another career that very same month: a Cal-bred chestnut by Lucky Pulpit, name of California Chrome.

Even since starting to train, however, Meah has been through enough–a terrifying trackwork smash, for one thing, not to mention a barn reboot in Kentucky on the very eve of a global pandemic–to view the success of Abby Hatcher (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) in the GIII Chicago S. at Arlington as a boost to the morale of her small, dedicated team, but otherwise only as a first milestone on what remains a long and challenging road ahead.

“When I started training, I had some funny luck,” she says. “I don't want to say bad luck, because I know things can always be worse. But, yeah, funny luck. I thought I had my first winner in a stakes race at Del Mar. What a fairytale that would have been! But he was disqualified. It was one of those that could have gone either way, depending who you asked, but they took him down.

“Between starting out that October, and the end of the year, I had 16 runners. Eight finished second. I was thinking, 'Man, this horse-training business is not all I was hoping… Am I ever going to win a race?' That was a humbling experience–but it's also how this whole game is. So, yes, winning my first graded stakes felt amazing, and nothing will take that away. But at the same time, it's a reminder to stay humble. There's still so much to be done, so many goals to accomplish.”

As such, Meah has found nearly as much satisfaction in the less conspicuous breakthroughs that assure her, in quiet increments, that she's heading the right way.

Jungle Juice (right) winning at Churchill last week | Coady

“I don't know what it was about June, but we hit a ton of milestones,” she notes. “We finally won first time off a claim, having bumped up from $30,000 claimer to maiden special weight; then the following week we won with a first-time starter, also for the first time; and I believe Jungle Juice (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) [a Churchill optional allowance winner last week] is the first to win three times for me. And then of course the graded stakes. So we had a huge month. We're not a huge crew but the staff work so hard, some of them traveled across the country to stay with me, and I'm so thankful to them. It's been really rewarding for everyone.”

That migration from California, early last year, was a huge decision so early in Meah's training career. Logically, there was no point bringing her Cal-breds. Leaving them behind, however, reduced the string to 11. But she now has 27 in the barn, and was able to build up support even after the shock that awaited her in Lexington.

“I have a lot of clients along the East Coast that were very supportive of the idea,” she explains. “California was undergoing a bit of scrutiny at the time, and not many people wanted to send horses there. That was sad to see, I'd had a great run out there, but for a young trainer getting started, it was really hard to give it an honest go. You could enter a horse and if the race didn't fill you might be looking at another month. We have so many more options here.

“But yes, it was a bit alarming to move our stable from Santa Anita to Keeneland and be told, after our first day training, that they were cancelling the meet. 'What have I done?' I said. 'I've shipped my horses all this way for one day of training!' Obviously I soon saw that this wasn't a Kentucky problem but a global one. And we made do with what we had. We shipped over to Oklahoma and won a race, for instance. But even during the pandemic I was given a chance by a lot of new people, which just goes to show how Kentucky has helped my business thrive.”

That Oklahoma winner, at Will Rogers Downs, was very dear to Meah. For it was Vallestina (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}) she was riding round Santa Anita one morning in June 2019 when the pair of them were badly lacerated in a freak accident. The vets candidly doubted whether Vallestina would make it.

Meah with Vallestina and her Midnight Storm foal | Courtesy David Meah

“But long story short, she ended up pulling through,” Meah says. “And she not only came back and won at Santa Anita but also became the first to win for me after we moved out here. It's been a bit of a fairy tale–she has just had her first foal by Midnight Storm, and the plan would be to bring him into training someday–so let's hope it keeps panning out that way.”

After that horrible drama, Meah reluctantly acknowledged that it was neither sensible nor necessary to continue riding trackwork herself. So began a new chapter in her relationship with the horse, which had first evolved in a backwater of Thoroughbred racing–Meah was born in Oregon and raised in Washington–and initially devoted her to rodeos. Her ultimate vocation would only gradually come into focus.

In adolescence, she began shadowing Dr. Solomon Benneroch, the veterinarian who tended her rodeo mounts but also had clients with a Quarter Horse barn. “I begged them for a job for two years,” Meah recalls. “I just bugged them until they finally called and said, okay, this summer.” She went on to study Animal Science at Montana State but her real education would come in grooming and exercising at places like Portland Meadows, Emerald Downs and Grants Pass. A world away from Keeneland–her current base, though she's excited to be moving back into a renovated barn at Kentucky's Thoroughbred Center in October–but a perfect environment to learn the nuances of equine care.

“Working at those smaller racetracks, you learned a lot about what you can and can't do with horses,” she says. “It was exciting to be a part of it, and I'm glad I was. You could really build a foundation that way, and I feel that's so important for everything in life.”

The graduation ceremony awaited in the new, life-changing journey Meah began in tandem with California Chrome. Her four years with Art Sherman would span two Horse of the Year campaigns.

“Honestly, I have been so blessed,” she reflects. “Coming into this game, and landing that job with Art, and becoming part of Chrome's entire career. The Shermans are still like family to me, to this day. They were the first people to really take me under their wing. And Art is one special horseman. Chrome wasn't a difficult horse–very sound, great mind–but Art is such a wonderful person, and loves his horses so much, I know he did everything right by that horse and gave him the very best opportunity to succeed. Maybe in some bigger barns, little things may have been overlooked. Every small detail needs to come together to make big things happen.”

California Chrome | Horsephotos

Just as when she had first cut her teeth on the racetrack, however, Meah feels that she learned as much from the lesser horses.

“Art trusted me to run the barn when he wasn't there,” she explains. “At the time, I felt I was missing out on the fun a little, like when Chrome went out to Dubai for three months. But with a 12-hour time difference I couldn't call about every little issue. I had to figure things out.”

Nonetheless Meah was also privileged to have a regular, hands-on connection with the champion.

“I breezed Chrome all the way into most of his races, unless of course Victor [Espinoza] was out for it,” she says. “That was quite an adrenaline rush. It's not anything I could put into words. I just let him do his thing, he knew what he needed to do and how to do it, but the way he traveled, the way he covered the ground, he just had so much class about him. And it's not like his pedigree was outstanding: he just had such a big heart.”

That elusive grail, so hard to identify, remains ever in mind when stocking her own barn from limited resources. Likewise for husband David, as a bloodstock agent whose transatlantic partnership with Jamie Lloyd often targets horses off the track in Ireland or his native Britain. David has also had a fertile association with Richard Baltas, with whom Meah rounded off her apprenticeship after the retirement of California Chrome.

“Baltas probably had over 100 horses,” she recalls. “So it was a totally different experience, and more demanding, both physically and in terms of time. More runners, more problems. Again, he trusted me, for instance to travel east with horses like Gas Station Sushi (Into Mischief). She was such a star to deal with, and that was also how I really fell in love with Kentucky as Horse Country.”

Abby Hatcher, winner of the June 26 GIII Chicago S. | Coady

David–who bought that filly, winner of the GIII Beaumont S., as a 2-year-old–can these days sometimes encourage clientele toward his wife's barn and indeed heads up the partnership that races Abby Hatcher, herself an Irish import.

“We'd actually been eyeing that race for a long time,” Meah says. “As you know, in horseracing things rarely go to plan, but for once everything worked out. We thought we'd be happy just to get her some black type, but to actually go up there and win was unbelievable. When she first came over here, I put some works into her and knew she had ability. But then I turned her out, gave her a bit of time to adjust and be a horse for a while. And that has really paid off. David has provided me with a bunch of horses from Europe that I've had success with, so it's really nice to have his support and his eye.”

Her first debt, however, remains to parents with zero horse connection who nonetheless indulged their daughter's obsession. “Rodeo was obviously very different, though maybe suggested that I have a very strong competitive edge!” Meah says. “It was every weekend, so I'm very thankful that I was sometimes allowed out of school early, or to miss a day for traveling. I always knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with horses. But I didn't come into this business with the mentality that I wanted to be trainer. It's just how the stepping stones laid out until it became a no-brainer not to give it a try.

“I did try to make sure I had that foundation before branching out. I didn't want to start out with two or three horses, with me as owner, and piece things together as I went along. I had people ready to give me a chance. I don't run into too many young trainers, male or female, and I feel there are plenty of people out there who want a trainer that's young and hungry. I have put in a ton of work, but a lot of people do the same without having a graded success so early in their career. So when all that work pays off like this, I do feel very blessed.”

The post Meah Adding Horsepower to Chrome Finish appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Abby Hatcher Springs 19-1 Upset In Chicago Stakes

Abby Hatcher and Alex Achard rallied out in the middle of the track to run down favorites Club Car and Dreamalildreamofu in Saturday's Grade 3 Chicago Stakes at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Ill.

Trained by Anna Meah and owned by her husband David Meah, Abby Hatcher covered seven furlongs on a wet synthetic surface rated fast in 1:22.27. The 4-year-old Irish-bred filly by Acclamation finished  a half-length clear of Club Car, the 5-2 second choice, with 11-10 favorite Dreamalildreamofu another half-length back in third in the field of nine fillies and mares.

Abby Hatcher paid $40 to win. The Chicago Stakes was her first added-money victory and third over from nine starts in a career that began in Ireland in 2019. This was her second win from six starts in the U.S.

She Can't Sing set the early fractions, going the opening quarter mile in :23.39 and the half in :45.93. Club Car took over at the furlong grounds, the six furlongs clocked in 1:09.66, with Dreamalildreamofu applying pressure. But Achard had all the momentum aboard Abby Hatcher and moved to the lead in the final yards.

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