Jockey Jareth Loveberry has a mount in all five turf stakes on Wednesday’s Northern Stars Turf Festival. He is anxious to return, and why would he not be? Loveberry was leading rider in 2017 and a top jockey at Canterbury until he left in 2020 to ride in Chicago. He has shipped in each year since for stakes and has won at least one every season since 2017. He has made many friends in Shakopee.
On Wednesday Loveberry rides She Can’t Sing in the $75,000 Lady Canterbury for trainer Chris Block and owner Bob Lothenbach. He won the race aboard She Can’t Sing last year. She is the 9 to 5 morning line favorite in the 10-horse, one mile turf stake.
“She’s a cool, cool horse,” Loveberry said of the 6-year-old mare by Bernardini, bred in Kentucky by Lothenbach. “At Fair Grounds or Colonial, I go see her all the time. I call her name, she comes running. She knows my voice.” He has ridden her eight times, winning three, missing the board just twice.
Loveberry will also ride three mounts for trainer Mike Maker, a connection made by his agent. Maker has for years had a knack of sending the right horses to Canterbury. This year he has Max K.O., the 8 to 5 favorite in the Brooks Fields; Artemus Citylimits, 2 to 1 favorite in the Dark Star Turf Sprint; Worthington, 2 to 1 second choice in the Canterbury Derby.
Loveberry also rides Lure’em In for Block in the Curtis Sampson Oaks as the second choice on the morning line at 7 to 2.
“I’ve got a busy week,” Loveberry said this morning while driving the two-and-a half hours to Ellis Park from Churchill Downs where he worked a horse earlier. He has five mounts at Ellis today and more over the weekend. “Minnesota, Kentucky, Ohio to ride Two Phil’s in the Ohio Derby.” The $500,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown is Saturday, June 24 and will be the first step in the summer campaign of Two Phil’s since finishing second in the Kentucky Derby. In the fall of 2022, Loveberry rode Two Phil’s to a win in the Shakopee Juvenile.
Two Phil’s is training at Hawthorne so Loveberry does not see him regularly but keeps in contact with those who do. Reports are that the colt is maturing and getting stronger. Maturing both
physically and mentally.
“He’s gotten a lot smarter,” he said. Trainer Larry Rivelli has indicated the intent to race Two Phil’s against the upper echelon of 3-year-olds this summer. Loveberry knows that it takes a special horse to do that and feels Two Phil’s fits the description. “You need everything, maturity, physicality and talent.” That description could also be applied to the rider.
First post for the nine-race card at Canterbury Park on Wednesday is 5:07 p.m.
