Trainer Jamie Lloyd hoped the
opening-day Oceanside Stakes would split into divisions so he could keep his
charges, Memen and Moment Of Weakness separate. The race didn’t split, so Lloyd
will have Moment Of Weakness to saddle for the Oceanside and Memen for Friday’s
seventh race, an allowance claimer at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, a sixteenth
longer than the Oceanside.
“It (not splitting) made a mess for
everybody, but I guess they didn’t get enough horses to do it,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd, 30, grew up in England and moved to California in 2001, where he worked
under trainers Jim Cassidy and Paddy Gallagher before going out on his own in
2006. His stakes winners include Hamieldaeme, Shermeen, and On The Acorn. He’s
also had a successful career as a bloodstock agent, helping with the
acquisitions of Monzante, Battle of Hastings, and St. Trinians.
Moment of Weakness, an Irish-bred
gelding, came off a nearly six-month layoff to finish fourth after setting the
pace through three-quarters of the Tsunami Slew Stakes on June 11 at Hollywood
Park.
“Coming off the layoff he was too
fresh on the lead,” Lloyd said. “We’re looking at it as if he needed a race.”
Memen, an Irish-bred colt by Verglas
is winless in three U.S. starts, two of them stakes assignments, this year.
Memen has not raced since a last-place finish of 12 in the Grade II American
Turf on the Kentucky Oaks undercard on May 6 at Churchill Downs. In April,
Memen was sixth, beaten less than three lengths in the Transylvania Stakes at
Keeneland.
A bout of illness between the
Transylvania and American Turf, which Lloyd believes was at least in part
brought on by changes in the weather in Kentucky, contributed to the lackluster
last race and prompted the time off since.