LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Lovely Maria won the 141st Kentucky Oaks by two and three-quarters lengths against Shook Up on Friday at Churchill Downs in an emotional finish for Kerwin Clark, her 56-year-old jockey, and Larry Jones, the filly’s trainer, who nearly lost his life in a riding accident in April 2014.
Clark’s fortunes once soured so badly that he went to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to revive his career. He had never won a Grade I race in four decades of competition until Lovely Maria rolled by three and a quarter lengths in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky.