Keeneland: Daisy Devine in front all the way in Jenny Wiley

LEXINGTON, Ky. - One week after riding Karlovy Vary to a front-running victory in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, jockey James Graham was up to his same race-stealing tactics Saturday, riding Daisy Devine to a comfortable wire-to-wire victory in the Grade 1, $300,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland.

In a race lacking pace, Graham allowed Daisy Devine to run freely in the early stages of the Jenny Wiley, in stark contrast to jockey Julien Leparoux, who took a hold of presumably the other speedy filly in the race, Tapitsfly.

Those rider moves proved telling to the outcome of the race. Passing the stands for the first time, Daisy Devine was cruising, pricking her ears and appearing to be in little more than a gallop. And comfortably in front she stayed, setting soft fractions of 25.12 seconds, 50.78, and 1:15.51, before quickening to complete 1 1/16 miles on a firm course in 1:43.21.

She wasn't the only front-runner to fare well. Bay To Bay, who chased her early, finishing second, beaten a length, and running a half-length ahead of Tapitsfly, who closed from fourth to be third.

Heavenly Landing, favored Zagora, and Aruna completed the order of finish, with Zagora and Aruna put at a disadvantage by racing in the rear half of the pack early behind the dawdling pace.

In taking the Jenny Wiley, Daisy Devine won her fourth consecutive stakes race for owner James M. Miller and notched the first Grade 1 of her career. A daughter of 4-year-old daughter of Kafwain, she paid $16.20.

"She's a bigger, stronger filly this year," Graham said of the winner, who took the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks last year as a 3-year-old. "She does anything you want her to do."

Graham said he felt confident she would outlast the opposition when the field came into the stretch. "I had no doubt whatsoever," he said.

Trainer Andrew McKeever said Daisy Devine would likely race next in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Distaff Turf Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard May 5.