Just Call Kenny fresh, fit for Smarty Jones at Parx

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Just Call Kenny was on a tight schedule to make the Haskell Invitational on July 27, but the five weeks since have allowed him to settle into a more relaxed training pattern.

On Monday, Just Call Kenny will make the third start of his current form cycle in the Grade 3, $300,000 Smarty Jones at Parx Racing. Trainer Patrick McBurney has given Just Call Kenny four works since the Haskell, including an easy half-mile in 51 seconds at Monmouth Park on Thursday.

“It was an easy work. He’s all set,” McBurney said at his barn afterward. “He’s got a little more time between races now and a few more breezes under his belt. I’m real happy with how he is doing.”

Just Call Kenny’s sixth-place finish in the Haskell was the first time he had finished worse than second in five starts. He won a Monmouth maiden race in his debut and then rallied from sixth and last in his third career race to win the $100,000 Spectacular Bid at Gulfstream Park in January.

Just Call Kenny came out of the Spectacular Bid with a condylar fracture that required the insertion of two screws during a surgical procedure. He returned to the races in the July 5 Long Branch Stakes at Monmouth and finished well to be a closing second to Irish You Well, beaten a half-length.

McBurney gave Just Call Kenny three works in the 22 days between the Long Branch and the Haskell to have him ready for the 1 1/8 miles.

“We think we might have thrown a lot at him making the Haskell,” McBurney said. “And then it was kind of a funny race. Bayern kind of threw it off on the lead, and nobody really made a run.”

On Monday, Just Call Kenny will face Haskell runner-up Albano and Protonico, who last time out finished third, beaten a head, by eventual Travers winner V. E. Day in the Curlin Stakes at Saratoga.