by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — Owner Richard Young watched I Luv The Nitelife follow in the footsteps of his previous star filly pacer Put On A Show in many memorable ways on the racetrack.

Tuesday morning, I Luv The Nitelife’s career mirrored Put On A Show’s in a way he hoped would never happen.

I Luv The Nitelife was preparing for Saturday’s $167,500 Nadia Lobell Stakes on Tuesday morning when she was discovered to have a fractured right knee. Young said I Luv The Nitelife will require surgery.

Put On A Show missed her entire 4-year-old season because of knee surgery in 2011.

USTA/Mark Hall photo

I Luv The Nitelife won 13 times in 15 starts this year, with earnings of $1.25 million.

“I’m upset, but I can’t do anything about it,” Young said. “It’s a very similar injury, but worse than Show’s because a larger piece has broken loose. The only difference is with Show we found out in March when she was getting ready to return to the races. This gives us four more months to recover.”

Put On A Show and I Luv The Nitelife both won the She’s A Great Lady Stakes at age 2, as well as divisions of the Eternal Camnation and Bluegrass stakes. Both finished second in the Breeders Crown and finished second in Dan Patch Award voting for divisional honors.

As 3-year-olds, both won the Breeders Crown, Valley Forge, Miss New Jersey and Simcoe and finished second in the American-National in what would prove to be their final starts of the season. Put On A Show won 12 of 16 races at age 3; I Luv The Nitelife won 13 of 15.

Put On A Show was the richest filly pacer in history, with combined earnings of $1.89 million at ages 2 and 3. I Luv The Nitelife broke that record this year, with $1.94 million in total purses. Both horses were trained by Chris Ryder.

“And they were the only horses I got at both (yearling) sales,” Young said. “They weren’t the same kind of horse, and they didn’t race the same way, but both were special. To be No. 1 and No. 2 in earnings, that’s hard to beat.”

Put On A Show returned to the races as a 5-year-old and won 12 of 25 starts and set the then-world record of 1:47.3 with a win in the Lady Liberty at the Meadowlands.

“I prefer racing,” Young said. “What I did with Show was kind of unprecedented; I’m not going to do the same thing with Nitelife if she can’t race next year. I’m not going to bring her back after a year-and-a-half (layoff). If that’s the case, she’ll be a mommy.

“The coincidences have to end sometime.”