In the penultimate race on the Friday, May 31 card, Furreal remained perfect in the belated start to his career when the four-year-old son of Bayern captured a one-turn allowance dash by 2 3/4 lengths for trainer Larry Curtis and owner-breeder Michael Furr. He defeated, among others, 1-9 post time favorite Pork Chop Pete, who couldn’t overcome a bumpy break while well clear of the rest.

Unraced at age two, Furreal has won both of his starts this year and overcome several minor setbacks that delayed the start of his career.

“He’s never had anything seriously wrong,” Curtis said of Furreal. “He had a few little things here and there, nothing that ever required surgery. But his owner has been really patient. Even after he won his first race back in January, he had a little issue with his shins. So we gave him some time off and he came back last week and ran another big race.”

Furreal’s half-brother, Lucy’s Boy Boy, definitely was for real, a winner 26 times in 50 career starts for trainer Sandra Dono and Furr. Furreal is the last foal produced by the Not For Love mare Love For Lucy.

If everything goes according to plan moving forward, Curtis said he hopes to stretch Furreal out after a pair of one-turn tries.

“There’s a race in the [condition] book for him here on [June] 27,” Curtis said. “It’s a non-winners of three lifetime allowance against state-breds. We’ll probably face some good ones in there, like Caffeinnicotine, who won an allowance race last weekend for trainer Liz Meehan. We wanted to try him two turns in his second start, but after he needed some time off, we decided to go back in a one-turn race and then wait for another two-turn allowance to come around.”

One night earlier, What’shername delivered a very promising effort in her career debut for owner-breeder-trainer and former local jockey Leslie Cromer. A sophomore daughter of Blofeld, What’shername was fractious and borderline unruly in the gate.

But she was all racehorse when the gates opened. She broke alertly to gain command in a 21.64 opener and then held safe Moonlit Kiss for a 2 ½-length score while stopping the timer in 51.82 for the 4 1/2 furlongs.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST OFF TO THE RACES RADIO!

Her final clocking was not only impressive at first glance but also when compared to an earlier maiden special weight for state-bred males on the card that was clocked in 54.31.

“She always showed me that she had the ability,” Cromer said of What’shername, the first and only filly produced by her mare Lov’emnrun. “She’s just always been a handful. She was the only filly out of my mare. All of her other five foals were boys and she also lost a couple. I always wanted a filly out of her, so when this one was born I was definitely going to keep her.”

In addition to Runnin’toluvya, What’shername’s half-siblings also include Loving Touch, who went undefeated in an abbreviated four-race career for Grams. Loving Touch won the 2019 West Virginia Lottery Breeders Classic.         

“She always trained really well,” said Cromer, who won nearly 450 races during her riding  career in the 1990’s, twice approaching 100 wins in a single season. “But she was a little unlucky, too. She nearly lost her left eye due to an infection. Somehow, we were able to save her eye. She’s always had the ability in the morning, but you never know until they go into that starting gate at night just how good they’re going to be. She was really good in her first start, and we’ll see what she can do when she starts facing a little better competition.”

Runner-up Moonlit Kiss, a three-year-old daughter of Great Notion owned and trained by Tim Grams, has a rep to live up to, as well. She is the first foal out of Moonlit Song, a Fiber Sonde mare Grams also owned, bred and trained. Moonlit Song won 14 of 26 career outings and earned over $400,000 along the way. She won five stakes at three, including the WVBC Cavada, and put in a gritty, runner-up effort behind Late Night Pow Wow in the Cavada the following year.

Moonlit Kiss has finished fourth and second in her two tries to date.