Cavorting gets shot at redemption in Jersey Girl
ELMONT, N.Y. – Cavorting looked like a potential star last summer in New York, but she comes into Friday’s $150,000 Jersey Girl Stakes at Belmont Park with something to prove – and she isn’t alone. All but one of the seven 3-year-old fillies in the six-furlong event are dropping out of graded stakes company, and several are looking to rebound from dismal efforts.
Cavorting is the lone graded stakes winner and lone prior winner at Belmont in the field. The filly trounced a short field by 11 lengths in her debut going six furlongs at Belmont last July. She then added the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga over a field that included eventual Grade 1 winner Angela Renee and eventual divisional champion Take Charge Brandi. However, Cavorting subsequently finished seventh in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes, was given the rest of the year off, and finished ninth in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes at a mile Feb. 21 in her comeback.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Cavorting didn’t handle the Gulfstream track well in the Davona Dale.
“So, we’re just drawing a line through that race,” McLaughlin said. “She’s training very well, we’re happy with how she’s doing, and she should run well.”
Cavorting drew post 5 under Irad Ortiz.
Bob Baffert shipped two-time stakes winner Enchanting Lady to Belmont Park for the Jersey Girl. The filly rolled in the Santa Paula Stakes at Santa Anita in April, earning the field’s top Beyer Speed Figure, a 98. However, she is looking to rebound from a ninth in the Grade 3 Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs five weeks ago. Enchanting Lady, a potential pace factor under Martin Garcia, will need to clear the field from the outside post.
Also likely to be toward the front end early is Enchantress, twice a runaway winner at six furlongs but soundly beaten in three graded stakes tries. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Enchantress drew post 4 under John Velazquez.
I’m a Looker is the lone entrant who has yet to start in a graded stakes, but she has faced some of the best 3-year-old fillies in the country. She endured a five-race losing streak after winning her debut last September. That streak included a loss to eventual Kentucky Oaks one-two finishers Lovely Maria and Shook Up in a Fair Grounds allowance and a loss to the unbeaten Promise Me Silver in the Letellier Memorial last December.
In her most recent outing, I’m a Looker rallied from seventh to win a Keeneland allowance by three-quarters of a length. Keen Pauline, a graded stakes winner three weeks ago at Pimlico, was fourth.
Trained by Patrick Dupuy, the late-running I’m a Looker picks up Victor Espinoza for the Jersey Girl, and she will have pace to run at.
Coco’s Wildcat and Spark both exit the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, where they were third and fifth. Stakes winner Noble and a Beauty rounds out the field.