Boyce runners in with chances

STICKNEY, Ill. – Many mainstays on the Chicago circuit have either scaled back their local operations or flown the coop entirely as purse levels here have declined in recent years to an extent that it’s difficult to make ends meet as a racehorse trainer. Not Michele Boyce. Boyce started 141 horses during 1995, her first year as a head trainer, and through Wednesday she had run 144 this year, most of those at Hawthorne and Arlington. And Boyce is a major player Saturday at Hawthorne in a pair of $50,000 Illinois-bred turf stakes races, both of which punch above their purse level.

In the Illini Princess Handicap (race 5, post time 5:02 p.m. Central), carded for 1 1/16 miles and restricted to fillies and mares, Boyce sends out prime contender Lovely Loyree.

In the Buck’s Boy Handicap (race 7, post time 5:58), another 1 1/16-mile race, this one with no sex restriction, Boyce entered three – Blue Sky Kowboy, Devileye, and Super Soldier.

Lovely Loyree, the 124-pound co-highweight along with Streamline, is at the tail end of her seventh year (and might race again at age 8) but still is going strong. In June, she won the $100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff. Lovely Loyree “doesn’t have to be on the lead,” Boyce said, but has always done her best work on or near the front end, which is why it was surprising to see her five lengths off a walking pace in her most recent start, an Aug. 4 Arlington allowance.

“It shocked me,” Boyce said. “She’s been training well for this. I don’t like the weight they gave her.”

Streamline, a multiple graded stakes winner on dirt, is the other horse weighted at 124 pounds, and it was she that won the Aug. 3 turf allowance before finishing a distant seventh Sept. 15 on Churchill dirt in the Grade 3 Locust Grove. The beef Boyce has is with Prado’s Sweet Ride getting in at 121 pounds.

Prado’s Sweet Ride was pulled up just a couple of strides into the One Dreamer Stakes on Sept. 1 at Kentucky Downs, but had merely taken an awkward step in a soft spot on the course and checked out fine afterward, according to trainer Chris Block. Prado’s Sweet Ride’s campaign hasn’t gone smoothly at all but in the one start where she was in position to show her best, the Grade 3 Modesty on July 7 at Arlington, she did, closing to finish second to Daddys Lil Darling.

Two of Boyce’s three in the Buck’s Boy – Super Soldier and Devileye – will need a lot of luck to contend, while her third runner, Blue Sky Kowboy, has plenty of ability but has lacked luck all season. A one-run closer, Blue Sky Kowboy has been bedeviled by slow paces and tough trips throughout a six-start campaign during which he has consistently turned in strong performances while winning just once.

“A deep closer is just who he is, and I’m not a great believer in trying to change their running style,” Boyce said.

Blue Sky Kowboy’s only previous Hawthorne turf start came a year ago in the $100,000 Hawthorne Derby, where he finished with his usual flourish to get second.

Super Soldier, an 8-yearold, makes his first start in 14 months, recovering from back surgery to repair a condition commonly known as kissing spines.

“We’re trying to bring him back, but I don’t know if it’ll work,” Boyce said.

Devileye is literally half Super Soldier’s age. He’s back from a much shorter layoff having “sored up a little” over the summer at Arlington. Devileye has plenty of ability and a record to match, 7-3-0 from 10 starts, but will be making his first start on turf in the Buck’s Boy.

“I think he’s much more geared to sprints and dirt, but he came back so good after his break, and the owners decided to give it a try,” Boyce said.

Another veteran campaigner, 8-year-old Cammack, rates a good chance in the Buck’s Boy but drew poorly in post 10. If the race is rained onto dirt, Goneghost looks the most likely winner.