Love Cervere rallies from last to first in $175K Floral Park

Edward Seltzer, Beverly Anderson and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing’s Love Cervere showed an impressive turn-of-foot while improving to 5-for-5 at six furlongs in Saturday’s $175,000 Floral Park, a Widener turf sprint for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Belmont Park.

Trained by Miguel Clement, the 4-year-old Into Mischief bay entered from an off-the-board result in the 6 1/2-furlong Grade 1 Ladies Turf Sprint in August at Kentucky Downs. Back at the distance of her closing wins in the Grade 3 Glen Cove, Listed License Fee and Take the A Train at Belmont at the Big A, Love Cervere rallied past all eight rivals for her fifth career stakes victory. 

“It’s safe to say she likes six furlongs and it’s safe to say she loves Belmont Park,” Clement said. “She loved Aqueduct, but she also loves Belmont, she might just like Long Island – she’s more of a city girl.”

With Hall of Famer Joel Rosario, who piloted her Take the A Train score, back aboard, Love Cervere exited the inside post cleanly, but settled in last well off the pace set by the Edgard Zayas-ridden Highway Harmony through the opening quarter-mile in 22.15 seconds over the firm turf. 

“She’s a filly that does her best running with one late kick even if she breaks well,” Clement said. “I told Joel, ‘no matter what, dawdle, wait at the back.’ It’s kind of his forte/specialty because he loves doing that, so the two of them are a dynamic duo.”

Highway Harmony was stalked by Quiet Confidence, Tabiti and Sweet Brown Sugar in the turn, followed by Leslie’s Humor in a close fifth position. Straightening for home, Highway Harmony pressed on as Leslie’s Humor emerged from that group as her first challenger through the half-mile in 44.73, all while Love Cervere still trailed. 

“I tried to save ground and save something for when I take her out and it's time to go,” Rosario said. “She has a really good turn-of-foot for a short time, and you have to time it just right. That was unbelievable. She looked really good out there, a really good finish and a good training job by Miguel.”

Rosario angled Love Cervere out and sped past the favored fellow closer Movin’ On Up with aim on the new leader in Leslie’s Humor. Dylan Davis implored Leslie’s Humor for more in the final sixteenth, but Love Cervere kicked rapidly to the 1 1/2-length victory in a final time of 1:08.11.

“Even though she was so far back, she has the most electric turn-of-foot,” Clement said. “As long as you ride her that way, it’s no different than when she was running at Aqueduct. Six furlongs is really her thing. When you run her five, five and a half, she just gets really willing at the wire and gallops out huge… half a furlong really makes a big difference, especially with some of these closing turf sprinters.”

It was one length back to Movin’ On Up in third, with Capturing completing the superfecta. Highway Harmony, Delightful Flame, Sweet Brown Sugar, Quiet Confidence and Tabiti rounded out the order of finish. Lovely Emma, who finished off-the-board in yesterday’s Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters, Flamingo Way and Obstreperous were scratched. 

Davis said the Chad Brown-trained Leslie’s Humor was game in her stakes debut as her three-race win streak came to an end. 

“She broke a lot better than I thought. I was in a good spot and when they all rushed to Zayas, ‘Leslie’ wanted to go ahead and try to go with them but I was able to switch her off nicely,” Davis said. “I was in a happy spot there behind them and they were just battling it out, so I was happy with that decision. She came with a good, strong run. I think she likes it a little bit firmer but at the end of the day, we got beat by a better horse. She gave it a good, honest effort, and I was happy with that.”

Bred in Kentucky by Edward Seltzer and Beverly Seltzer, Love Cervere is out of the stakes-placed Black Minnaloushe mare Panther Strike and is a half-sister to Grade 3-winner Chapalu and dual stakes-placed Caroline Test. She banked $96,250 in victory while improving her record to 14-6-2-2 and returning $8.94 for a $2 win bet as the 3-1 second choice. 

Live racing resumes Sunday at Belmont Park with a nine-race card, featuring the $175,000 Forever Together in Race 8. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.

America’s Day at the Races presents daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule/.

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