Love Cervere stays perfect at Belmont at the Big A, wins License Fee again
Love Cervere stayed unbeaten at Belmont at the Big A’s six-furlong outer turf, running down a hot pace to win the License Fee in 1:09.70. The bigger test now is whether that profile travels beyond Queens.
Love Cervere is turning one very specific setting into a personal kingdom. The 4-year-old filly won Sunday’s Listed $150,000 License Fee at Belmont at the Big A, keeping her perfect record intact at both the outer turf course and the six-furlong trip while proving again that this is the place where her late kick turns into a weapon.
Manny Franco never rushed the Miguel Clement trainee, and that was the point. Mega Mil took the field through honest fractions of 22.97 and 46.03 on firm turf, while Love Cervere settled near the back of the eight-horse field before Franco swung her into the five path and asked for one sustained run. She answered with the kind of measured acceleration that matters in turf sprints, getting past the leaders in the final furlong and clearing Cynane by three-quarters of a length. Buttercream Babe was another half-length back in third, and the final time was a sharp 1:09.70.
The win pushed Love Cervere to 4-for-4 at the course and distance, and it made her a three-time stakes winner at Aqueduct and Belmont at the Big A after earlier scores in the Grade 3 Glen Cove and the Take the A Train. That is not a random résumé line. It says she keeps showing up for the same configuration, and at this meet that kind of repeatability is gold. Her current record now stands at 10 starts with 4 wins, 2 seconds and 2 thirds, with earnings of $382,391.
There is also a clear human thread behind the numbers. Love Cervere, owned by Edward Seltzer, Beverly Anderson and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and bred by Edward Seltzer and Beverly Seltzer, earned $5,000 for the License Fee and returned $7.66 to win. The victory came in her first start of 2026, and it followed a 2025 Take the A Train score that marked the final stakes win for the late Christophe Clement before Miguel Clement took over the barn. That win, when Love Cervere came from last of nine and 6 1/4 lengths back at the half-mile in 46.40 to score by a neck, showed the same burst she used here.
For horseplayers, the read is straightforward: Love Cervere is not a one-trick pony, but she may be a track-and-distance specialist first and everything else second. When she gets back to six furlongs on this outer turf course, she has become one of the most reliable turf sprint mares in New York. If she is going to travel to bigger spots, she will need to prove that this sharp Queens form can follow her.
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