Regal Glory, Shantisara hard to separate in Jenny Wiley

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Even those who know Shantisara and Regal Glory best have a hard time separating them as the duo head for a matchup in Saturday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the Keeneland turf.

“Tough call,” said Baldo Hernandez, trainer Chad Brown’s assistant who has overseen their final preparations at Keeneland in recent weeks. “Tough call. Both pretty nice fillies, so I don’t know. It’s gonna be tough. Maybe one-two, maybe a dead heat?”

Any edge the stablemates appear to have against one another is slim. Shantisara owns a Grade 1 win on the Keeneland turf but Regal Glory is only a half-length shy of the same accomplishment. Regal Glory has the advantage of having started in 2022, but not since January.

Shantisara made four starts last year after coming to Brown from France, improving her Beyer Speed Figure each time. She finished the campaign with consecutive victories in the Grade 3 Pucker Up at Arlington, the Jockey Club Oaks Invitational at Belmont, and, finally, a five-length score in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup during the Keeneland fall meeting. The latter race was contested on yielding turf; Saturday’s course is likely to retain some cut in the ground after rain in Lexington throughout the first half of this week.

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Regal Glory, who has also previously won on yielding turf, was second by a half-length in the Grade 1 First Lady during the fall meet, unable to get by stablemate Blowout while posting a career-best 103 Beyer. She then won the Grade 1 Matriarch in California, and in her lone start of 2022, took the Grade 3 Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Gulfstream Park.

The Pegasus marked the first start in Peter Brant’s colors for Regal Glory, as he purchased her for $925,000 out of the 2021 Keeneland January sale, where the majority of the late Paul Pompa’s bloodstock was dispersed. She thus remained in Brown’s barn, and gives him a two-pronged attack on a record fifth victory in the Jenny Wiley. Brown is currently tied with Bill Mott and the late Bobby Frankel – his mentor – with four wins each.

Shantisara and Regal Glory turned in their final serious piece of work for the Jenny Wiley on Sunday, breezing together in 1:02.80 on the Keeneland turf, and hitting the wire in stride.

“Everyone breezed super,” Hernandez said. “We’re in good shape.”

Regal Glory has shown remarkable versatility, winning top-level races both on the lead, as she did in the Matriarch, and from off the pace, as she rallied from eighth in the Pegasus. She and regular rider Jose Ortiz will thus have options as the race develops around them.

Navratilova was a front-running winner of the Grade 3 Valley View on yielding Keeneland turf last fall, and was a pace-pressing third in the Grade 3 Honey Fox to start this season.

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Scarabea made an early move in the Grade 3 Orchid at Gulfstream earlier this month, made the middle pace, and then faded to fifth. She is drawn in the inside post, and will likely have to use some of her speed early.

Likely to attend the pace are Canadian champion Lady Speightspeare and Waliyak, who was multiple Group 3-placed in France last year.

Shantisara’s best effort, in the Queen Elizabeth, came with a stalking trip and pouncing move. She landed in post 3 with speed on either side of her and will thus have to work out her preferred trip – but with a field of only six and the hot-riding Flavien Prat aboard, that should not prove much of an issue.