Keeneland's Jenny Wiley Stakes Announces Contenders and Odds for 4/16/22
| Post Position | Horse and Morning Line Odds |
|---|---|
| 1 | Scarabea (20-1) |
| 2 | Waliyak (FR) (6-1) |
| 3 | Shantisara (IRE) (6-5) |
| 4 | Regal Glory (7-5) |
| 5 | Navratilova (8-1) |
| 6 | Lady Speightspeare (8-1) |
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Navratilova Looks to Ace the Competition in Jenny Wiley Stakes
Trainer Rusty Arnold has seven Grade 1 victories on his Keeneland resume, a total that includes a victory by G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s Centre Court in the 2013 Jenny Wiley (G1).
On April 16, Centre Court’s daughter Navratilova, a Humphrey homebred, will try to add to the family legacy when she goes to the gate under jockey Colby Hernandez in a field of six in the 34th running of the $500,000 grass test over 1 1/16 miles.
“They are not that similar,” Arnold said of mother and daughter. “Centre Court was bigger and stronger, but the best distance for both of them is a mile to a mile and a sixteenth.”
Centre Court won six graded stakes and earned $961,048. In addition to winning the Jenny Wiley, she ran second in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) in 2012.
Navratilova notched her first graded stakes victory in last fall’s Valley View Stakes (G3) over the Keeneland course before returning with a third-place finish in the one-mile Honey Fox (G3) at Gulfstream Park on March 5.
“She had a good winter and then in the Honey Fox she had a tough post (11),” Arnold said. “We tried to chase a Chad Brown horse (In Italian [GB]) and that probably cost her second.”
Navratilova has a fan in her namesake: nine-time Wimbledon women’s singles champion Martina Navratilova, who ruled the Centre Court at the All England Club from 1978-90.
“I have heard that Martina has Tweeted about her on her account,” Arnold said. “She is aware there is a good filly named after her.”
Peter Brant’s Regal Glory and Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables and Robert LaPenta’s Shantisara (IRE) will each aim to give trainer Chad Brown his fifth win in the Jenny Wiley and both bring multiple race win streaks into Saturday’s race.
Regal Glory closed 2021 with a victory in the Matriarch (G1) at Del Mar and opened 2022 two months later by taking the Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational (G3) at Gulfstream Park. Brant purchased Regal Glory in January 2021 for $925,000 at the disbursement sale of the late Paul Pompa’s bloodstock and she was initially slated to be retired after the Pegasus World Cup.
"She was scheduled to be bred to Into Mischief,” Brown said after the Pegasus. “Mr. Brant and I were watching her train…and we were remarking how sound she is and how great she looks at this age.”
Shantisara brings a three-race win streak into her 2022 debut highlighted by a five-length victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) at Keeneland last fall. Flavien Prat, who has been aboard for all three of those victories, has the call Saturday and will break from post position three.
