Javanica might need to rate to break through in Wilshire Stakes

In her 14-race career, Javanica has finished second in five stakes, including a neck loss to eventual Preakness winner Rombauer in 2021 and a runner-up finish to the seven-time stakes winner Going Global last month.

“She’s been running against some tough competition,” trainer Eoin Harty said on Friday. “She needs to win a graded stakes.”

The 4-year-old Javanica has an excellent chance to accomplish that in Sunday’s Grade 3 Wilshire Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf at Santa Anita.

Owned by Godolphin Racing, Javanica was second by 1 3/4 lengths to Going Global in the Grade 2 Royal Heroine for fillies and mares at a mile on turf on April 9. Javanica set the pace, but could not hold off her heavily favored rival through the stretch.

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“I thought it was a great effort,” Harty said. “She didn’t quit. She ran to the wire.”

Harty said that Javanica has shown no sign of fatigue.

“She’s overdue, but she hasn’t regressed since her last race,” he said.

What is a concern is the large field of 11 in the Wilshire. Javanica tends to run near the front and Harty wants to avoid a speed duel.

“I don’t think she needs to be in front,” he said. “She likes to run with the fox rather than the hounds.”

Javanica can be effective as a stalker. In the El Camino Real Derby against males at Golden Gate Fields in February 2021, Javanica closed from fifth to finish a neck behind Rombauer.

The $100,000 Wilshire includes two stakes winners at Santa Anita this year in Canoodling, who won the Grade 3 Megahertz at 22-1 at a mile on turf in January, and Eddie’s New Dream, the winner of the Irish O’Brien for statebred fillies and mares at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course on March 19.

This is the second start in a stakes this year for Keyflower, who was a troubled fifth in the Grade 3 Santa Ana at 1 1/8 miles on turf on March 26, and the first start since November for Miss Dracarys, who was third in the Winter Memories at Aqueduct last year.

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Trainer Neil Drysdale cautioned on Friday that Miss Dracarys is not a certain runner in the Wilshire, the last of nine races on a program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific.

Canoodling followed her upset win in the Megahertz with a fifth-place finish at 48-1 in the Grade 2 Buena Vista Stakes at a mile on turf on March 5. Canoodling broke through the gate before the start and raced in traffic before finishing three lengths behind Leggs Galore.

“She’s not a bad gate horse,” trainer Mike Puype said. “Something triggered here with a horse next to her and it sent her through [the gate]. It’s highly unlikely it will happen again.”

For the Wilshire, Juan Hernandez takes the mount for the first time since 2020.

“She’s training well for this race,” Puype said. “It’s a competitive race. Seven or eight of them are live.”