Jaywalk regains championship form in Delaware Oaks win

Jaywalk hadn’t raced terribly in her three starts this year, but when you’re the 2-year-old filly champion, expectations run high. She got back in the win column in a big way Saturday at Delaware Park, romping in the Grade 3, $300,000 Delaware Oaks, and is back on track for her late-summer objective, the Grade 1 Cotillion at trainer John Servis’s home base of Parx Racing.

Jaywalk, who completed 2018 with victories by more than five lengths in the Grade 1 Frizette and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, started this year with a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Davona Dale, a third in the Grade 1 Ashland, and by finishing sixth of 14 in the Kentucky Oaks.

On Saturday, jockey Joe Bravo allowed Jaywalk to sprint clear in the 1 1/16-mile Oaks and then began rationing her speed. When chief rival Fashion Faux Pas came calling on the far turn after six furlongs in 1:10.72, she could not get closer than a half-length to Jaywalk.

When Jaywalk switched leads on cue straightening into the stretch, the game was over, and she pulled away to score by nine lengths, galloping out far ahead of the field.

Fashion Faux Pas, who had won the Light Hearted at Delaware by 14 1/2 lengths in her prior start, held second by four lengths over Ujjayi. The stewards conducted an inquiry into the stretch run after Ujjayi came outward in deep stretch but ultimately let the order of finish stand.

Jaywalk paid a seemingly generous $4.80 to win in the six-horse field. She was timed in 1:43.21 after setting splits of 24.12 seconds, 47.77, and 1:36.76. She is owned by the Cash Is King Stable of Chuck Zacney and the D. J. Stable of Leonard Green and his family.

Servis said this week he had gone back to using two-minute licks, rather than quicker works, with Jaywalk. He also added blinkers to her equipment Saturday.

“When she came back after her first race earlier in the year, I thought maybe she needed the race, so I started bearing down with her a little bit in her works, and that is probably the worst thing I could have done,” Servis said. “She just did not respond well to it. We went back to the old routine with what we did last year with the two-minute licks and putting those long, quicker miles in her, and she responded.

“You know with horses, sometimes you have to figure them out, and we get caught up in the shuffle sometimes, and you have to go back to square one.”

The $1 million Cotillion will be held Sept. 21. Jaywalk will likely start once before that.

Jaywalk cannot immediately return to Parx due to shipping restrictions placed on Delaware Park, which has a pair of horses in isolation due to health concerns. She will be sent to veterinary surgeon Patty Hogan’s New Jersey farm until the shipping ban is lifted.