For Jo Jo Air, it's firm turf or forget it in Sunday allowance
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rain was expected this weekend at Keeneland, but Wesley Ward was hoping it wouldn’t be enough to affect the turf course to any great extent by the time the eighth race is run Sunday.
“If it’s soft or off, I’ll scratch, absolutely,” Ward said of Jo Jo Air, a 4-year-old filly who would be wheeling back off a 10-day rest in the eighth race, the last of three allowances dotting a nine-race Sunday card.
Jo Jo Air “didn’t care for the going,” said Ward, when she faltered to finish sixth as an odds-on favorite in the Oct. 1 The Very One over a yielding Pimlico turf.
“Obviously, I was hoping to catch a firm course when I entered her for this race, but we’ll have to see what the weather does,” Ward said. “She’s a nice filly, and I hope we have a chance to run because she’s ready to go right back.”
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With or without her, a solid card is in store for Sunday at fan-free Keeneland. Jo Jo Air, a two-time stakes winner, is one of 12 fillies and mares entered in the eighth, a $78,000 allowance with multiple conditions, including a four-other-than stipulation. If in fact rain forces the race to the main track, then one of two main-track-only designates, A Thousand Reasons, could draw in as a major contender for Tom Amoss.
The two earlier allowances (races 3 and 6) both will be run at 1 1/16 miles on the main track, with the finish of those races, as always, being at what otherwise is the sixteenth pole. Both are second-level races with purses worth as much as $73,000. (Purses for maiden-special and allowance races at Keeneland include substantial bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.)
Race 3 could showcase the tactical abilities of Locally Owned, who will have Javier Castellano aboard when he breaks from post 2 in a field of six older horses. Exiting a rugged Kentucky Derby Day allowance, Locally Owned was a three-back winner at Churchill Downs in an effort to suggest he could be formidable in this spot.
Castellano also could be a central figure in Race 6 when he gets a leg up from Whit Beckman, the local assistant to Chad Brown, aboard a 4-year-old filly named Smooth With a Kick. Seven other fillies and mares will oppose Smooth With a Kick, a two-back Saratoga winner exiting a third-place finish as an odds-on favorite in the Twixt Stakes last month at Laurel Park.
First post daily at Keeneland is 1:05 p.m. Eastern. After Sunday, the track goes dark for two days before another five-day race week resumes Wednesday. The 17-day meet runs through Oct. 24.