Your Love Takes $100,000 Shine Again

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Paul Pompa, Jr.’s Your Love stalked the early leaders from the catbird seat before pouncing in the stretch and digging in late to take Wednesday’s $100,000 Shine Again Stakes at Saratoga.

Breaking well from the far outside post 8 under Javier Castellano, Your Love sat in third just off the front-running duo of Come Dancing and the 2-1 favorite Heavenly Score through opening splits of :22.41 and :45.69. Let loose at the top of the stretch, the Chad Brown trainee had to continue fighting that pair for much of the run home, then held off a late bid from Cairenn on her outside to secure success by a length in a final time of 1:23.70 for the 7-furlong main track sprint.

“I liked my horse today; I liked the way she did it,” Castellano said. “(I) sat right off the pace a little bit. Two horses set the pace and I was second, third, and that’s what I was looking for. I just wanted to manage her in the last part of the race, and I think it worked out great today. The first time I rode the horse, I didn’t know much about her and I tried to split horses. I made a couple mistakes. I learned through the process and I’m glad we got it done today.”

Heavenly Score took third by 1 1/4 lengths over Come Dancing, while Impasse was 5 1/4 lengths back in fifth. Wonderment, Yorkiepoo Princess, and Aura Rose completed the order of finish.

Your Love’s win was her first in two 2018 starts and increased her overall record to 8-4-3-0, with her only off-the-board finish a sixth in last year’s Grade 1 Longines Test Stakes. The 4-year-old daughter of Flatter has now earned $251,200.

“The pace was good in front of her, and she really responded,” Brown said. “I like the fact that Javier waited and let the other horse come up and engage the front runner, and we can let them do a little bit of the work and wait and make that final move. That’s the way she prefers to run. Javier got to know her a bit in her last start, which was a bit of a troublesome trip. This time today, he rode a beautiful ride on her.”

Your Love returned $6.90 to win, $3.70 to place, and $2.70 to show. Cairenn brought back $4.10 to place and $2.80 to show, while Heavenly Score paid $2.80 to show.