Larry Rivelli trained 14 stakes winners in 2022 and 2023, then won four stakes during 2024 and three so far this year. That’s what happens when your home track – Arlington, in Rivelli’s case – shuts down.
Hawthorne, Rivelli’s main summer base now, has such a light stakes schedule that he has his first stakes runners there Sunday in a pair of turf sprints, including odds-on morning line favorite Nobals in the $100,000 Robert Molaro Memorial.
Nobals began his career at Presque Isle Downs with owner-trainer Leland Hayes, winning his debut impressively enough that Vince Foglia’s Patricia’s Hope bought him, and in his second start, in August 2021, he won the final renewal of the Arlington-Washington Futurity. The Noble Mission gelding, now 6, has scaled even greater heights, including a victory in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in 2023.
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Nobals, using Beyer Speed Figures as a guide, has not lost much since. He got a 102 in his BC Turf Sprint win, a 100 capturing the Kennedy Road last September at Woodbine, and another 100 blowing out Churchill Downs allowance foes in May. Taking a wider view, Nobals, until the Kennedy Road, contested over Tapeta, did not look like quite the same horse during 2024. And following his sharp Churchill score, Nobals went back to his roots at Presque Isle and finished second as the 1-2 favorite on July 4.
Nonetheless, Nobals, drawn on the rail with Jareth Loveberry in the 5 1/2-furlong Molaro, could turn in a “C” performance and still come out on top.
His greatest adversary might be weather. Fierce storms tore through the area Thursday, followed by pummeling rain Friday afternoon, and with more rain forecast through Saturday night, the Molaro could wind up on dirt. Rivelli has that covered, too, having entered the speedy dirt horse Uncashed, already a four-time winner this year.
Lady Carey
Rivelli put three in the Lady Carey, the sister race to the Molaro, which on paper is a more interesting and competitive contest.
A dozen fillies and mares passed the entry box, with Dreamaway set to run only if the Lady Carey is moved to the main track. Her trainer, Wesley Ward, also has Saturday Flirt in the main body of the field, and Ward said Saturday Flirt is an intended runner at Hawthorne, rather than Ellis Park, where she was entered in a Monday allowance.
Whichever Ward filly runs will have a Hawthorne newcomer on her back, globally famous Frankie Dettori, who is slated for his first trip to Stickney, Ill.
Lightly raced Saturday Flirt also has gone global, finishing 10th in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2024 following a debut victory in a Keeneland turf sprint. This season, she won a first-level allowance on Keeneland turf, and on June 8 landed the Soaring Softly at Saratoga, a race carded for grass but rained onto dirt.
Somehow, 3-year-old Saturday Flirt, who should be getting weight from all her older rivals, gives weight or carries the same 121 pounds as five of them. She still can win. The Rivelli-trained Foxxy Cleopatra looms her main rival on turf, while Foxxy Cleopatra’s stablemate Rich City Girl would be competitive on dirt.
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