Brown has good chance to add to Jenny Wiley spoils with In Italian and Speak of the Devil

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Chad Brown will be looking to extend his dominance in the Grade 1, $600,000 Jenny Wiley when he is represented by the highly regarded Peter Brant pair of In Italian and Speak of the Devil among eight fillies and mares in the 1 1/16-mile turf race.

In Italian will be making her first start since finishing second here last fall behind the Coolmore filly Tuesday after leading most of the way in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. The 5-year-old In Italian surely will be favored Saturday after getting a series of 11 workouts under her belt, starting in late January at Brown’s winter base of Payson Park. Her five wins and three seconds from nine career starts includes victories in a pair of Grade 1’s last year, the Diana at Saratoga and the First Lady here in the fall.

Speak of the Devil is still looking to return to the form that carried her to an eye-catching score last May in the Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill. The French-bred 6-year-old has the benefit of a 2023 start, a fifth as the favorite in the Honey Fox last month at Gulfstream Park.

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Brown has won five of the last eight runnings of the Jenny Wiley, including four of the last five.

◗ The Friday card at Keeneland includes a seven-furlong allowance (race 8) in which Travel Column, winner of the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in 2021, will make her first start in more than six months and since the OXO Stable of Larry Best transferred the 5-year-old mare into the care of trainer Paulo Lobo.

“She has really trained well,” said Lobo. “She might need to go a little longer than seven furlongs, but this could be a good distance for her, too.”

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