‘Lady’ stages upset in Willa On the Move

5-year-old beats favorite Hot City Girl for her fifth win of the year

Showing off her affinity for the local track, Lovable Lady reeled in heavy graded stakes-winning favorite Hot City Girl approaching the stretch and sprinted clear after straightening for home to post a powerful 12-1 upset in Saturday’s $100,000 Willa On the Move at Laurel Park.

The 6-furlong Willa On the Move for females 3 and up was one of four stakes worth $375,000 in purses on the nine-race program, joined by a trio of races for Maryland-bred/sired horses: the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Futurity, $100,000 Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship and $75,000 Howard M. Bender Memorial for 3-year-olds and up.

A 5-year-old daughter of Not For Love bred and owned by the Samuel H. Rogers Jr. Trust, Lovable Lady ($26.80) won for the fifth time this year and the third time in a stakes at Laurel, where she has a lifetime record of 5-2-3 from 11 starts.

She captured the Jameela on turf and the Politely on dirt, both at 6 furlongs, this summer and fall before having her three-race winning streak ended with a third-place finish in the Maryland Million Distaff on Oct. 22. Last time out, she faded to finish next-to-last in the 1-mile Geisha on Nov. 19.

“Today was about revenge because last time the filly didn’t run good,” regular rider Horacio Karamanos said. “She broke out of the gate, and I tried to stay behind the speed a little but I couldn’t hold her. At the three-eighths pole she decided to go and I let her pick it up. I never asked her. At the top of the stretch she took the lead and I said, ‘Go home. Vamanos .’”

Lovable Lady broke sharply and outran New York shipper Hot City Girl for the early lead before dropping back and letting the 2-5 favorite take the field through an opening quartermile in 22.28 seconds. Lovable Lady coasted to the front after running a half in 45.46 seconds and rolled through the stretch, finishing in 1 minute, 9.56 seconds to win by 41⁄2 lengths. In the other stakes: Kathleen Willier’s Greatbullsoffire bounced back from a subpar effort last time out with his third stakes victory of the year, a commanding six-length win in the Maryland Juvenile Futurity in 1:22.85 for 7 furlongs.

Buckingham Farm homebred Crabcakes, just seven days removed from her debut win at Penn National, collared pace-setter Fear No Evil at the top of the stretch and drew away to win the Maryland Juvenile Filly, covering 7 furlongs in 1:23.95.

Michael J. Harrison’s Just Jack swept by his rivals down the middle of the track and went on to earn his first career stakes victory in the Howard M. Bender.