Gathering, Nashindy represent Sheppard in Justakiss Stakes

The $50,000 midweek stakes that Delaware Park have been carding certainly are paying their way by attracting large, competitive fields. Wednesday’s Our Mims Stakes drew 11 3-year-old fillies, and on Thursday, Jonathan Sheppard and Christophe Clement train the chief players in the 14-horse Justakiss, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares.

Sheppard actually entered two in the Justakiss, the talented but lightly raced Nashindy and Gathering, who has been chasing tougher company in her last two starts at Keeneland and Belmont Park.

“I will probably run them both,” Sheppard said Tuesday. “I have four or five horses with similar conditions, and it is difficult to find races for them all. It is hard to get the allowance races to go.”

Gathering and Nashindy are 5-year-old Augustin Stable homebreds and will race as an entry. Gathering might have the better chance of the two, as she is three races into her current form cycle, while Nashindy has not been out since October.

Gathering returned from a layoff with a rallying allowance win at Gulfstream Park in January. She has been hampered by slow fractions in her two most recent starts, both at a mile. At Keeneland, she was beaten 5 1/2 lengths by the front-running Somali Lemonade – who returned to win the Grade 3 Gallorette on the Preakness undercard. In her last start, Gathering came up 1 1/2 lengths short of Filimbi, a pace-pressing Juddmonte European import.

“Gathering is a very nice one,” Sheppard said. “She just needs to be set up a little bit. A bit more distance will help, too. I would like to get her some black type.”

Nashindy has only started five times, all last year at 4. She won her first three starts over synthetic tracks at Keeneland and Presque Isle Downs, finished third in the Ladies Turf at Kentucky Downs, and then tired against optional-claiming company at the Keeneland fall meet.

“To me, she is the same over both surfaces,” Sheppard said. “I thought she’d done enough last fall and put her away for the winter, which is our way.

“I’m a fan of synthetic surfaces,” he added. “She still has a third allowance condition, and we do have a small string at Presque Isle.”

Clement’s Justakiss entrant is Orion Moon, the likely favorite who is coming off two narrow defeats while clearly second-best. She finished well to just miss behind Coffee Clique in a Gulfstream optional claimer in March – Coffee Clique returned to win the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on Derby Day – and then missed by a neck in the Grade 3 Beaugay at Belmont last time out.

She might be slightly less pace-dependent than Gathering and will be making her third start of the season. It will take a strong performance to deny her again.