Out of the 19 entrants to the M Life Rewards Ladies Series first leg at Yonkers Raceway Monday (March 2), Lovin Cocoa is the least experienced. She has just nine pari-mutuel starts under her belt. However, Travis Alexander hopes she will make up for it on speed and talent.
The four-year-old Rock N Roll Heaven mare enters the M Life Rewards Ladies off of an eight-length victory in a local $14,000 overnight on February 11, an effort that caught even her trainer by surprise. Lovin Cocoa had bar shoes on in that start, a move Alexander was sure was a mistake after she warmed up that night.
“To be honest, before the race I was absolutely petrified because I had put bar shoes on her and she was absolutely terrible warming up, to the point where we almost scratched her,” Alexander said. “I told Matt (Kakaley) just to be careful, that it was my fault, not hers, she doesn’t like these bars, she doesn’t like the frog pressure. She’s not lame, she just doesn’t like the shoes.”
Lovin Cocoa raced in fifth early, nine and a half lengths off the pace. She moved to the outside straightening away the first time and advanced without cover. Reaching the backstretch, rival Thaneeya pulled the pocket, forcing Lovin Cocoa three-wide approaching the three-quarters. Passing the six-furlong marker, she glided past the leaders effortlessly and opened up a pair of lengths. Lovin Cocoa kicked clear in the stretch under Kakaley pistol grips to post the dominating score at 1-9.
Although Lovin Cocoa enters the M Life Rewards Ladies as a first-leg morning line favourite, last summer she was a longshot to race at all. A homebred for Mark and Leslie Wasserman’s Fiddler’s Creek Stable, Lovin Cocoa is out of Scrapping Beauty, the first horse the Wassermans and Alexander had together in 2008. Lovin Cocoa and DD Delicious, Alexander’s other M Life Rewards Ladies entrant, grew up together in the same field.
Prone to making breaks at two, Lovin Cocoa was unraced as a juvenile. Last year at three, Lovin Cocoa had one qualifier on June 5 before starting in the New York Excelsior ‘B’ Series over a ‘sloppy’ track at Tioga Downs on June 10. She finished sixth, beaten six and three-quarter lengths, and came out of the race with an injury, which forced her to the sidelines.
“She bowed both front tendons in the mud at Tioga. She hurt both tendons that night,” Alexander said. “It’s a kick in the butt because that day, DD Delicious won the sire stakes and then two races later, that happens. Highs and lows. It wasn’t terrible, but it was enough to where we had to shut her down. We just did the right thing and Lovin Cocoa is one of Mrs. Wasserman’s favourite horses. That’s been her filly since she was born and so we did what we had to do to go forward.
“We healed her tendons and lo and behold, here we are. Honestly, she shouldn’t be racing. Her legs were bad. We didn’t give up, we gave her time, healed her up. Her caretaker (Armando Barragan) does an amazing job. He works hard on her legs. She wants to race, she’s fast enough, it’s just a matter of keeping her sound and happy.”
Lovin Cocoa qualified back at Yonkers on November 15. She paced her mile in 1:55.4 with a :28.2 final panel. The effort took Alexander and Kakaley by surprise.
“Once we had the legs set up and the ultrasounds were good, I knew we were looking good. I didn’t know if she’d get around the half and I didn’t know how much speed she truly had and how much she would have lost due to injury,” Alexander said. “I qualified her the first time at Yonkers and she paced 55. To be honest, I was mind-blown. Matt and myself were like, ‘where did this come from? What in the world?’”
Despite the encouraging result, Lovin Cocoa made breaks in her next three starts, all at the ‘Hilltop.’ Alexander regrouped and sent the filly to the Meadowlands Racetrack. With Alexander in Florida training babies, Roy Marohn drove Lovin Cocoa to a qualifying win at the ‘Swamp’ in 1:55.3 on December 21. Six days later, she finished third in a $15,000 overnight, where she was individually clocked in 1:52.4 with :27.2 on the end.
“She has a temper. That’s why she was making those breaks early. I had too big of a head pole and I was trying to make her do it our way instead of letting her do it her way,” Alexander said. “I took her to the Meadowlands to get her mind right and I took everything off. Roy Marohn did an amazing job getting her qualified and going.
“After that 52 mile at the Meadowlands, I knew,” Alexander continued. “She’s always had speed, her whole family has had speed. The colts of that family have the same temper, but they’re a lot tougher to deal with. I knew she’d be more than competitive in this series. Once we got her racing good, we set her up for that.”
Lovin Cocoa enters the M Life Rewards Ladies first leg off nearly three weeks rest. Alexander was forced to make adjustments after her outing with bar shoes and then prepped her for this start.
“I had to take the shoes off because the day after, she was sore, so we had to adjust again,” Alexander said. “Young horses or lightly raced horses are a learning curve. You have to find what they will tolerate. You have to find a balance. We went back to the drawing board and I’m very happy with what we came up with.
“She’s missed two weeks on purpose just to get her right,” the trainer continued. “She’s trained up very well. I expect a big effort on Monday and going forward. Four weeks in the series, I didn’t want to race her, so we’re managing her and we have high hopes for her.”
Lovin Cocoa will start from Post 4 with Matt Kakaley in Monday’s fourth race, the third division of the M Life Rewards Ladies Series. The series will kick off in Race 2, where Alexander will send out DD Delicious.
DD Delicious started her career last year with two consecutive overnight wins before jumping into New York Sire Stakes competition. She won a leg at Tioga on June 10 and placed in five others to earn a berth in the $225,000 NYSS Final at Batavia Downs on September 14. After having drawn Post 8, she earned a cheque when she finished fifth, which boosted her earnings to $140,470 for Fiddler’s Creek Stable, and was pointed to the M Life Rewards Series.
“She’s special. She’s a very nice mare. We had some issues last year with some sickness, unfortunately a couple bad posts in the wrong stakes races,” Alexander said. “It worked out because now she fits this series. As soon as she didn’t win the sire stakes final, I shut her down and aimed her just for this series because it’s a good starting point for her four-year-old year.”
DD Delicious spent a couple months turned out in Ohio before shipping to Alexander’s Florida stable to train back. She qualified a winner in 1:56 at Pocono Downs on February 12 and prepped for the M Life Rewards Ladies with one start at Yonkers on February 18, where she finished second in a $16,000 overnight from Post 8 with Kakaley in the bike.
“We sent her down to Florida and she prepped as well as any horse could. Her first start, that was beautiful,” Alexander said. “He sat as long as he could, she sprinted home, had pace on the end of it. She trained very, very well (Friday), couldn’t be happier.”
Unraced at two, DD Delicious had 14 starts at three. Now entering her four-year-old season, Alexander feels DD Delicious is coming into her prime.
“She’s much stronger. She grew. She put on a lot of muscle. I could tell all winter in Florida and when we qualified her at Pocono, that was the first time (Matt) drove her and he even said he could feel she’s just stronger than last year,” Alexander said. “They race the first year at three, not having those starts at two does hinder them a little bit as far as strength goes.”
DD Delicious is the 5-2 morning line second choice behind Tom Milici’s North Star Ideal, who enters off of three consecutive wins.
Alexander will also send out two starters in the M Life Rewards Gents Series first leg Tuesday (March 3). Marco Beach will start from Post 4 with Joe Bongiorno and is the 5-2 morning line favourite in the first division. Despite his 6-for-19 record and $51,400 in earnings, Alexander doesn’t feel Marco Beach has lived up to his potential yet.
“He’s probably one of the smartest horses I’ve ever had, but he’s the hardest horse I’ve ever broke,” Alexander said. “He’s been a challenge to get to this point.
“He would notice any change. If a tractor moved, he would stop and try to figure out what was different. If somebody’s truck was parked on the side of the hill and then the next lap was gone, he would sit there for 20 minutes and try to figure out what was different, and you couldn’t make him move. He would sit there and just stare,” Alexander explained.
“Last year, there was a race where he was crossing over to the front and he saw the starting gate and went to the outside of the track to go behind the starting gate again,” Alexander continued. “It was bad. That’s why John Kakaley drove him a lot last year because I needed someone that I could get every start that would educate him. He’s so fast. I haven’t even scratched the surface. I can’t train him by himself. His mind wanders. Mentally, he’s a tough horse.”
Alexander has seen improvement in Marco Beach from three to four. He qualified in 1:56.4 at Pocono Downs on February 12 and won his seasonal debut at the Wilkes-Barre five-eighths-mile track by a neck in 1:53.4 with a :27.3 final quarter on February 23. The M Life Rewards Gents first leg will be Marco Beach’s first start on a half-mile track.
“I don’t know how he’ll get around the half because he’s never seen a half. Not that he’s bad-gaited, he’s very good-gaited, but you just never know. He is a big horse. That’s the only thing that concerns me is him not being on Yonkers before the series started,” Alexander said.
“The reasoning was just more the way things fell in place as far as timing,” Alexander explained. “I shipped him north and qualified him at Pocono and I didn’t want to short rest him and race him at Yonkers with the series coming up. It was better to race on Sunday at Pocono. It was scheduling.”
Alexander’s final series entrant is Tellitsabb, a four-year-old Tellitlikeitis gelding who recently came to Alexander’s stable for owner Brian Carsey. After going 3-for-13 last year in Ohio with Ernie Gaskin, Tellitsabb is 3-for-3 with $24,000 earned already this season.
“He’s a fantastic horse. The Gaskins did a great job with him. When they sent him out, he was ready to go. I liked him, so Brian Carsey bought him because I liked him so much,” Alexander said.
Tellitsabb’s victories have each come by at least two lengths and he’s paced his miles in 1:53.1, 1:53.4, and 1:54 with Matt Kakaley and Joe Bongiorno alternating drives to this point. Despite the impressive results, Alexander sees room for improvement.
“He’s a horse that wants to lean in on the turns. The last two starts, I’ve tried to help with that and it’s made him worse, so I have to take everything off and go back to how it was the first start,” Alexander said.
“I don’t know how fast he is. Joe and Matt are both very high on him. It’s just how he is on the turns and the more you rig him, the more he tries to fight you,” Alexander continued. “I’ll have to leave it to the drivers, let them earn their money a little bit. Speed wise, he’s extremely fast.”
Tellitsabb is a 5-1 morning line with Matt Kakaley set to drive. He drew Post 8, but with valuable points at stake, Alexander expects the gelding to leave.
“We’ve got to go forward. I don’t know how forward we’re going to go, but we can’t just duck and sit and wait,” he said. “We’ve got to race, so we’ll see. I’ll leave that to Matt though.”
Alexander hopes to build on early-season success in the M Life Rewards Series. His stable is 11-for-44 at Yonkers this year with an additional 14 seconds and thirds. He credits his wife, Alaina, and caretakers Wilder Allverz (Marco Beach), Lucia Sanchez (Tellitsabb), and Barragan (DD Delicious and Lovin Cocoa).
“We’ve had a very good start to the year. We’ve had a lot of horses fit the right spots. That always helps. Nice diversity from non-winners of two up to non-winners of $30,000 trot. It’s been a very good winter and hopefully it keeps going,” Alexander said.
“My crew has done a tremendous job. I have to thank them. I’ve been going back and forth between here and Florida. My wife Alaina, she’s amazing. She runs the northern barn. I have no worries when she’s up north. She treats these horses like they’re her kids and it shows. She’s the reason they’re all racing the way they are. She does an amazing job.”
Yonkers Raceway features live harness racing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The M Life Rewards Ladies Series begins Monday night, March 2 while the M Life Rewards Gents Series kicks off Tuesday, March 3. The Blue Chip Matchmaker Series will return Friday, March 13 and the Borgata Pacing Series starts Saturday, March 14.
First-race post time will be at 7:05 p.m.
(SOA of NY)