Ordonez confirms Om N Joy for Raven Run
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ARCADIA, Calif. – A day after she worked a slow half-mile at Santa Anita, Om N Joy was confirmed for her first start outside of California in Saturday’s Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Keeneland.
Trainer Aggie Ordonez and the partnership that owns Om N Joy – Connie and Jerry Baker, Michael Golovko, and Terrence Scanlan – debated Sunday whether to skip the $400,000 Raven Run in favor of a start in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 1 at Del Mar but have opted for the trip to Kentucky.
“We’re going to go to Keeneland,” Ordonez said Monday. “She’s had a good year and she’s earned this opportunity.”
Om N Joy worked a half-mile in 51.20 seconds on Sunday, although Ordonez clocked the filly in “50 and change.”
“It was never meant to be a speed work, more a maintenance drill,” she said.
A California-bred by Om, Om N Joy has won 5 of 12 starts and earned $401,140. All of the wins have occurred in succession in dirt races since mid-March. The streak includes four stakes – three for statebred 3-year-old fillies – and the Grade 3 Torrey Pines Stakes at a mile on Aug. 30 at Del Mar.
“Everyone is thrilled that she’s taken us there,” Ordonez said of the trip to Kentucky. “We’re hoping to continue the streak.”
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