Evvie Jets might be cooling her jets before next start
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. -- The connections of Evvie Jets, winner of last Sunday’s Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct, are not in a hurry to run their mare back, but if the Grade 3, $175,000 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont Park on May 7 comes up a small field that race could become an option.
If not, then Evvie Jets could be considered for the Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game on June 9 at Belmont Park, “if it’s not going to be crazy-tough,” trainer Mertkan Kantarmaci said.
Kantarmaci said Evvie Jets came out of the Plenty of Grace in good order, but believes the right move would be to wait at least a month to run her back. The Beaugay, at 1 1/16 miles, is run just three weeks after the Plenty of Grace while the Just a Game would give her about seven weeks between races.
“If [the Beaugay] was a week or 10 days later I would think about that race,” Kantarmaci said. “I’m still thinking about it, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea for her unless she really, really looks good and if it was a five- or six-horse field.”
A start in the Beaugay would give Evvie Jets eight weeks to a race like the $150,000 Perfect Sting Stakes at Belmont on July 2.
Though there are likely options out of town as well, Kantarmaci said, “I don’t want to ship her, I want to run her at Belmont.”
In the Plenty of Grace, Evvie Jets came off a five-month layoff to score a front-running neck victory over Whitebeatbeam. Evvie Jets, claimed for $80,000 in the fall of 2021, earned a career-best 93 Beyer Speed Figure for the effort.
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