Jais's Solitude can feast on easier company

The cancellation of six Florida-bred stakes from the March 29 card at Tampa Bay Downs forced trainer Eddie Kenneally to come up with a Plan B for his 4-year-old Jais’s Solitude. Fortunately, Kenneally didn’t have to look too far.

Jais’s Solitude will be able to run at Tampa on Sunday in an open second-level optional-claiming race which looks to offer significant class relief, albeit for a lesser purse. Jais’s Solitude, who was scheduled to run in the $110,000 Turf Classic, heads a field of 10 entered in Sunday’s $18,900 feature going 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Jais’s Solitude is dropping into an optional-claiming race after consecutive stakes tries. That included a narrow head loss in the Grade 3 Virginia Derby in August as well as a disqualification from a victory in the Bald Eagle Derby last September at Laurel Park. Jais’s Solitude was disqualified to sixth for drifting in and causing Zonda to check sharply.

Jais’s Solitude got a brief break before returning in the Sunshine Millions Turf at Gulfstream, where he finished last of nine. He got a little squeezed back early and never made an impact while not being persevered with late.

“I don’t know there was any pace in the race, that didn’t help us either,” said Kenneally, who trains Jais’s Solitude for Black Ship Racing and Homewrecker Racing. “We were in the back of the pack for a large part of the race. Nobody was closing in that particular race and for that caliber of horse they went quite slow.”

Jais’s Solitude ran twice at Tampa in 2019. He was beaten by Regally Irish in an optional claimer – Regally Irish came out of that race to win a listed stakes at Aqueduct – and then was beaten three-quarters of a length by Global Access in a Florida-bred stakes. Global Access came back to win three more stakes in 2019.

“He’s a closer. You can close on that Tampa track,” Kenneally said.

Jais’s Solitude will break from post 6 under Antonio Gallardo.

Blackline steps up in class following a first-level allowance win over this course on March 13. He is 2 for 3 on turf with his lone loss coming in a first-level allowance at Fair Grounds, a race in which he encountered some early trouble.

Trainer Michael Stidham is looking for a similar trip to last time, where Blackline can stalk the pace from his outside draw under Samy Camacho.

“He’s got enough tactical speed to put himself in a decent spot and then hopefully he can drop over and save some ground,” Stidham said.

Coltrane scored a front-running victory in this same condition on Jan. 18 with a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. He finished second again in this condition when trying those same tactics on March 6. Both of those races were a mile. Sunday he has to try and carry that speed an additional sixteenth.

Outshine, the runner-up in last year’s Tampa Bay Derby, tries turf for the first time for trainer Todd Pletcher. Outshine, by Malibu Moon, is a full brother to the two-time turf-sprint winner Bowie. Another half-sibling won going long, albeit in a low-level claimer at Delaware Park.

Total Tap, Dazzling Truths, Mr Wrench It, Navy Armed Guard, Shendam, and Nevans complete the field.