Rushing Fall wears down Jolie Olimpica to win Jenny Wiley a second straight time

It would’ve been understandable had Rushing Fall’s connections called it a career after 2019. It was October, Rushing Fall was 4, a multiple Grade 1 winner, and over what appears to be her favorite course, Keeneland’s, she’d just run the most disappointing race of her career, finishing a non-threatening fourth in the First Lady Stakes.

Instead, owner Bob Edwards’ e Five Racing Thoroughbreds and trainer Chad Brown green-lighted Rushing Fall for a 5-year-old campaign, and the mare, with an outstanding win Saturday in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes, showed she’s as good as ever.

Jolie Olimpica, a Brazilian import, ran her heart out in the Jenny Wiley, setting a measured pace and fighting tooth and nail to the end, but Rushing Fall wore her down, winning by just short of a length under a strong ride from Javier Castellano, her regular jockey.

“To me, my career, my personal life, she’s right near the top,” said Castellano, asked to rank Rushing Fall in his pantheon of mounts. “She’s never disappointed me.”

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Rushing Fall won the Jenny Wiley for the second year in a row and now has two wins in that Grade 1 race to go with Keeneland victories in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup as a 3-year-old and the Grade 2 Appalachian as a 2-year-old. Last summer, she won the Grade 1 Just a Game at Belmont and was second to her Chad Brown-trained stablemate Sistercharlie in the Grade 1 Diana, a 1 1/8-mile race slightly beyond Rushing Fall’s ideal trip.

What a day it was for Brown, too, who also won the Grade 1 Madison with Guarana and the Grade 2 Delaware Park Handicap with Dunbar Road.

Rushing Fall tuned up for the Jenny Wiley with a comfortable win in her 2020 debut, the Grade 3 Beaugay on June 2, and Brown had her on perfect pitch Saturday. Juliet Foxtrot and Rushing Fall broke toward the top, but it was Jolie Olimpica and Mike Smith who crossed over and cleared from post 6, setting reasonable splits of 23.42 and 46.92 as Rushing Fall tracked on the outside, Juliet Foxtrot settled into the pocket behind Jolie Olimpica, and Toinette raced behind Rushing Fall.

Jolie Olimpica was a very good filly in Brazil, had impressively won two turf sprints for trainer Richard Mandella since being imported to the U.S., and finished second in the Grade 2 Buena Vista, her lone North American two-turn start, after failing to relax on the lead. This time, Smith got her to settle, and when Castellano, just before the five-sixteenths pole on the far turn, decided to ratchet up the pressure with Rushing Fall, Jolie Olimpica was in for the fight.

She maintained a narrow advantage to the eighth pole as the two horses came together, brushing briefly, but the 1 1/16 miles might just have pushed beyond Jolie Olimpica’s stamina reserves, and Rushing Fall edged away the final half-furlong, the winning margin officially three-quarters of a length.

Winning time was 1:39.02, easily the fastest 1 1/16 grass race ever run at Keeneland. Course records Saturday were dropping like flies, however, the Keeneland course baked to a firmness never before felt during the traditional April and October meetings.

Still, the top two performed admirably, as did third-place Juliet Foxtrot, who came out for her run in mid-stretch and just couldn’t quite match the top two, coming up a half-length short of Jolie Olimpica in third. Toinette, who couldn’t do anything with an ideal trip, and late-running Altea finished in a dead heat for fourth.

Rushing Fall is by More than Ready out of Autumnal, by Forestry. She cost $320,000 at the Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale at Saratoga in 2016, and now has earned $2,278,000 with a career mark of 13-10-2-0.

Brown won the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Mile with a mare, Uni, and we already this strange year are in July, rushing headlong toward the 2020 BC Mile over the Keeneland turf course, which is something to think about this fall.