Rushing Fall all the way in Jenny Wiley

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Returning from a layoff of more than six months Saturday in the Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, Rushing Fall picked up as a 4-year-old how she ended her 3-year-old season: by winning a Grade 1 turf race.

Flashing the speed she similarly displayed in winning the Oct. 13 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, Rushing Fall sped to the lead in a relatively paceless Jenny Wiley. She carved out easy early fractions of 23.81 seconds and 48.41 seconds in the 1 1/16-mile turf race, flicking her ears while traveling easily under Javier Castellano, and then accelerated leaving the second turn and down the stretch to repel her closest pursuers.

Her Chad Brown-trained stablemate, Rymska, grew closest in the lane, but had to settle for second, with Rushing Fall turning her back to score by a length.

A half-length behind Rymska, Got Stormy was third, a neck in front of Onthemoonagain, who was followed across the wire by Bellavais, Phantom Opening, Princess Warrior, and Goodyearforroses in the eight-horse field.

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Rushing Fall, a daughter of More Than Ready owned by e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, completed 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:42.77, including a final sixteenth in an eye-popping 5.85 seconds. She paid $3.80 as the favorite.

The outcome gave Brown the first-, second-, and fourth-place finishers – coming a year after he swept the top-three positions when Sistercharlie triumphed over Fourstar Crook and Off Limits in the 2018 Jenny Wiley.

“Sounds like a lucky guy that has a lot of good horses in his barn,” said Brown, the Eclipse Award-winning trainer the past three years.

The Jenny Wiley gave Castellano his second Grade 1 victory at Keeneland in as many days, following a score aboard Delta Prince in the Maker’s 46 Mile on Friday. He has now won six of the 15 stakes contested at the meet, putting him one win away from tying Pat Day's record for stakes wins during a single Keeneland meet. Day won seven stakes at the fall meet in 1998.

Castellano said Rushing Fall was a bit tired after the Jenny Wiley, but he came away excited for what lies ahead for her in 2019.

“She put in a lot of effort,” he said. “But I’m not concerned. She did it very easy.”

In taking the Jenny Wiley, Rushing Fall became a four-time stakes winner at Keeneland, just the third horse in Keeneland history to do so. Wise Dan, with seven Keeneland stakes wins, and Take Charge Lady, with four stakes wins, are the two others.

Besides the QEII and Jenny Wiley, Rushing Fall won the Appalachian and Jessamine at Keeneland earlier in her career.

She could have an opportunity to add to her Keeneland stakes total later this year – Brown mentioned the Grade 1 First Lady in October as a possible long-term target.