Bad fall in race doesn’t stop Lull

by Jennie Rees

There might be a faster horse than Lull in Friday’s $1 million Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita Park. But it’s hard to imagine there’s a 2-year-old filly in the race possessing more heart.

After winning her debut by three lengths at Belmont Park, Lull clipped heels rounding out of the turn and fell hard in Saratoga’s $100,000 Bolton Landing Stakes. She got up, ran off before being collared by the outrider, then was walked back to trainer Christophe Clement’s barn. Sixteen days later, Lull shipped from upstate New York to Kentucky Downs to capture the $350,000 Exacta Systems Juvenile Fillies over the promising Caroline Test.

“She’s so athletic that she could overcome that — mentally, too,” said Adele Dilschneider, who bred and co-owns Lull with Claiborne Farm.

“The way she came out of that, I’ll remember forever,” said trainer Christophe Clement. “Remarkable horse. It just shows she’s a great filly with a very good mind. Very few horses could fall and then do so well.”

Lull is a daughter of Claiborne’s stallion War Front. Her mom, Quiet Now, is from the family of the late Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and Horse of the Year Saint Liam, as well as 2016 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile contender Gun Runner and Grade 1 winner Buster’s Ready.

She was second to La Coronel in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes, which at 1 1/16 miles is a sixteenth-mile longer than the Breeders’ Cup.

“We’re very proud of her for putting in that kind of effort,” Claiborne president Walker Hancock said of the Kentucky Downs victory, adding of the Jessamine, “She ran fine. We were second-best, but we’re going to take another shot here. The race is a sixteenth-mile shorter, and it will be firm turf again, so I think we have a shot. She’s 15-1, and she should be 15-1. That filly beat her handily, and I know there are some really nice fillies that ran well in Grade 1 races in Europe. But we like our chances.”

Lull photo courtesy of Kentucky Downs/Reed Palmer Photography

Jennie Rees is a racing communications specialist from Louisville. Her Breeders’ Cup coverage, which concentrates on the Kentucky horses, is provided free to media as a service by Kentucky Downs, Ellis Park, the Kentucky HBPA and JockeyTalk360.com.