Love Lock Just That, Winning at 1-5 Odds

The trouble with starting a 1-5 shot is that a trainer has to find a trap door if he loses.

“I usually do my best work in spots like that,” Wayne Lukas joked, “but it’s really a can’t-win situation. You get beat and you don’t want to walk through the grandstand.”

A 1-5 shot ran true to her form and her odds Sunday as Lukas’ Love Lock shook off some early pressure and won the $106,100 Santa Ysabel Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths.

Finishing behind her were Nonies Dancer Ali, who had never run in a stake; Mamaison Miss, up from the $32,000 claiming ranks; Continental Lea, another ex- claimer; and Eastside Westside, the 3-1 second choice who was sacrificed when she battled Love Lock until they reached the far turn. Hope Island, winner of her last two starts, was scratched by trainer Ray Bell, who said: “Facing Love Lock and a slightly off-track, that’s kind of double indemnity, isn’t it?”

Love Lock, a daughter of Silver Ghost and Harvest The Gold--a Spend A Buck mare--paid $2.40 after running 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 over a damp track listed as fast. Sharp Cat, trained by Lukas until she was recently sent to Wally Dollase’s barn, set the stakes record a year ago with a clocking of 1:41 1/5.

Love Lock has been sold twice, as a yearling for $62,000 and then as an unraced 2-year-old for $180,000, and her current owner, Michael Tabor, reached Lukas on his cellular phone in the winner’s circle, minutes after the Santa Ysabel had been run.

“Europeans are like that,” Lukas said after a brief exchange with Tabor and his racing manager, Demi O’Bryne. “But they’re at Keeneland, at a sale, and that’s good. They’re looking for more horses.”

Lukas trained Tabor’s Thunder Gulch when he won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont in 1995, and last year they raced Marlin, one of the country’s best grass horses.

Love Lock has won five of 10 races, earning $546,782, and finished second twice. Two of her non-winning efforts leap off the page, one a puzzle, the other a scare.

In November, she ran ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Hollywood Park as Countess Diana beat her by almost 21 lengths.

“We have absolutely no reason for that,” Lukas said. “She wasn’t under the weather or anything like that. In fact, she was doing so well after the race, that we wheeled her right back. Sometimes these horses just do that.”

Last August was one of those days when Lukas wanted to sneak through the grandstand. Sent off at 2-5 on a sloppy track for the Ellis Park Debutante, Love Lock went to her knees at the start. Jockey Shane Sellers lost a stirrup and the filly didn’t even finish.

“She actually ran for a couple of strides on her knees,” Lukas said. “It was a disaster. It took her all summer to get over it.”

Three weeks after the Breeders’ Cup, Love Lock won the Golden Rod at Churchill Downs and two weeks later Kent Desormeaux rode her for the first time as they bagged the Hollywood Starlet by 11 lengths. That was her last start before Sunday.

When Gary Stevens and Eastside Westside went after Love Lock from the start of the Santa Ysabel, forcing fractions of :22 4/5 and :45 4/5 for the first half-mile, Desormeaux stayed with the throttle.

“There was a lot happening before the three-quarter pole,” Desormeaux said. “I could write a book. She did her thing after that. She’s got natural speed and that gets so many of them home when they can break smartly like she does. It’s unfortunate she had to work so hard to beat these fillies, but she didn’t back up at all and that’s what sets her apart from the rest of them. That’s what lets you know she’s the real deal.”

This was Lukas’ fourth win in the Santa Ysabel. Plans for Love Lock include the $200,000 Las Virgenes on Feb. 15, the $250,000 Santa Anita Oaks on March 15 and then the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 1, the day before the Kentucky Derby.

Typically, Lukas has more than one filly shadowing the Kentucky Oaks. On Saturday at the Fair Grounds, the New Orleans track where Lukas is racing a division this winter, his undefeated Star Of Broadway won a sprint in stakes- record time.

“That’s three in a row for her,” Lukas said. “When they asked me how good she was, I said that perfect is hard to improve on.”

Mud Route, a disappointing fourth in the Malibu Stakes, will give trainer Ron McAnally two shots against Silver Charm and Lord Grillo in Saturday’s $300,000 San Fernando Stakes.

McAnally also plans to run Kukulcan in the 1 1/16-mile race. Prospects are for a small field, with Wild Rush listed as the only other probable.

Mud Route, who has won two of five starts, was sidelined last year because of a sore shin and will try two turns for the first time in the San Fernando.

Lord Grillo defeated Silver Charm in the seven-furlong Malibu on opening day at Santa Anita. Silver Charm, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, hadn’t run since his second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes in June. Last week, it was announced that Silver Charm was an easy winner of the Eclipse Award for best 3-year-old male. The gray colt collected 281 of the 301 votes, with Deputy Commander finishing second and Touch Gold, the Belmont winner, ranked third.

Jockey assignments for the San Fernando are Gary Stevens on Silver Charm, Eddie Delahoussaye on Lord Grillo, Chris McCarron on Mud Route, Alex Solis on Kukulcan and Kent Desormeaux on Wild Rush.

The Malibu and the San Fernando are the first two legs of the Strub series for horses foaled in 1994. Highly regarded Deputy Commander is a probable for the $500,00 Strub, a 1 1/8-mile race that will be run Feb. 7.