I Luv The Nitelife tries for her third consecutive stakes final win Saturday night when she faces six foes in the $184,250 Mistletoe Shalee for three-year-old filly pacers at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
Trained by Chris Ryder and driven by Tim Tetrick, I Luv The Nitelife will start from post two and is the 4-5 morning line favourite. She has won five of six races this year, earning $414,191 for owners Richard and Joanne Young. For her career, I Luv The Nitelife has won nine of 16 starts and over $1 million.
With only seven fillies entered in the race, eliminations were unnecessary last weekend. The down time was fine with Ryder, particularly because I Luv The Nitelife raced the previous five weeks in a row.
“I just take it as it comes, but I’d rather have the week off than go in the elim really since she’s been racing every week for a while,” Ryder said. “She’s pretty much push button and so far she’s taken everything we can give her and handled it.”
I Luv The Nitelife heads to the Mistletoe Shalee off her win in the $300,000 Lynch Memorial on June 29 at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, where she beat Shebestingin by 1-1/2 lengths in 1:50 over a sloppy track. Two weeks earlier, she captured the $391,882 Fan Hanover Stakes by 5-3/4 lengths over Belle Boyd in 1:49.1.
Her only setback this year was a third-place finish behind Ms Caila J Fra and Jerseylicious in the New Jersey Sire Stakes championship on June 1 at the Meadowlands.
Last year, I Luv The Nitelife won the $610,000 Shes A Great Lady Stakes and divisions of the Eternal Camnation and Bluegrass. She finished second in the Breeders Crown, Champlain, and a division of the International Stallion Stakes.
I Luv The Nitelife’s second dam, Lisheen, won the 1994 Mistletoe Shalee and is the mother of Lis Mara, who was voted the sport’s top older male pacer in 2006 and earned $2.1 million in his career. I Luv The Nitelife is a daughter of Rocknroll Hanover out of the mare Lisjune.
“She’s good, real good,” Ryder said. “She trained really well. There’s not a whole lot to tell you, she just keeps going.”
Shebestingin has won eight of 11 career races and never finished worse than second. She won a division of the Simpson Memorial Stakes on May 3 at the Meadowlands. Jerseylicious won the Bobby Weiss Series in April at Pocono Downs, beating Shebestingin by a neck in the final, and was third in the Lynch and Fan Hanover.
To view entries for Saturday's card of harness racing, click the following link: Saturday Entries – Meadowlands Racetrack.
This story courtesy of Harness Racing Communications, a division of the U.S. Trotting Association. For more information, visit www.ustrotting.com.