One opponent horsemen often can’t figure out how to defeat is Mother Nature. And thus, with Turfway Park losing seven cards due to a winter storm that upended life in much of Kentucky, and frigid air that blanketed the state in the aftermath, the $125,000 Wishing Well Stakes for female sprinters was pushed back from its original Jan. 24 date to Jan. 30 – and then again to Friday night, when it is expected to go with a field of 11, largely intact from the first draw. Along with losing race days, Turfway was closed for training for more than a week as the temperatures made it impossible to clear snow and ice from the track. “It’s difficult because you’re fit and ready to go the first time it runs,” said John Ennis, who sends out Grade 3 winner Ms. Tart. “We’re back up without really having a work or a gallop in between. The only saving grace is, these are sprinters, and they don’t really take much getting ready, and I’m lucky she’s pretty athletic and good-winded . . . she’s pretty naturally fit.” All 11 Wishing Well entrants are Kentucky-based, putting them in similar situations whether they were stabled at Turfway – where training resumed Monday – or elsewhere. “The one thing about it is, we’re all in the same boat,” said Ethan West, trainer of Moon Mystique. “It’s not like one horse has an edge over the others. . . . Mother Nature threw this on us, and all of our hands were tied.” :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Several of the entrants logged final breezes on Jan. 23, the day before the storm rolled in. Fancy Caber Neigh posted a bullet three furlongs in 35.80 seconds; just a tick behind in 36 flat was her William Morey-trained stablemate Sea Runner. Morey said the stiff works were by design, knowing the horses were likely to lose some training days. “I thought the best thing we could do was get some sharp three-eighths works in,” Morey said. Since then, most Kentucky-based runners have been tack-walking or jogging in their respective shed rows. “I’m lucky, I’ve got a huge, big shed row at [the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington] – one of the new barns,” Ennis said. “So we can jog them for two miles-plus every day and just keep up that fitness as such.” The Wishing Well should finally go from paper to the track on Friday. Baby No Worries, Dala, Fancy Caber Neigh, Kehoe Beach – who has been the morning-line favorite in each iteration – Lithe Spirit, Moon Mystique, Ms. Tart, and Sea Runner have been dropped in the entry box all three times. Velvet Devil and Zadorsky were entered in the redrawn race Jan. 30 and remain in here. My Lil Punky is the one newcomer for take three. Multiple stakes-placed at Turfway and coming off a local win, the filly could add more pace to a field that already has plenty. The speedy Kehoe Beach has landed in post 4 after drawing toward the outside previously. With the exception of My Lil Punky, she is now inside of much of the other speed, which could lead to more pressure on her as she makes her first start since August. Trainer Wesley Ward often gives his horses extended breaks and has them ready to fire off the bench. Kehoe Beach did register a bullet in her most recent work, on Jan. 9 at her Keeneland base. The mare was a Grade 2 winner in 2024, and although she went winless last year, all her starts were in graded stakes – she was a close third in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley off a layoff – and she earned multiple Beyer Speed Figures in the 90s, standing out in this group. Ms. Tart won the Grade 3 Royal North on the Woodbine turf and the Satin N Lace on Presque Isle’s Tapeta last year. In her first start since moving from trainer Kevin Rice to Ennis, she set a pressured pace and finished third in the Holiday Inaugural in December at Turfway. After landing post 2 in the last iteration of the Wishing Well draw, she has fared better this time, in post 6. “I thought she ran great” in the Inaugural, Ennis said. “She was in the one hole, she got a lot of pressure the whole way. I thought she ran a great race.” Lithe Spirit finished an even fourth in the Inaugural. She likely needed the race in her first outing since July, having not shown her best off prior layoffs. She won last season’s Wishing Well and Queen at Turfway. The upstart is Dala, making her stakes debut for Godolphin. She has won 4 of 6 lifetime, beginning with a debut victory last season at Turfway over a next-out winner. Most recently, she won back-to-back allowance/optional-claiming sprints at Churchill and Turfway. Fancy Caber Neigh, second to Dala last out, could contribute to the pace, while her stablemate Sea Runner rallied to win a Turfway allowance in December. “Going short, coming off the pace was new for her and it worked,” Morey said. “Obviously, taking a big step up in class, but we tried some new tactics, and it worked for her.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.