Two turns a question for 'Jenny'

CHICAGO - Her win rate has slowed since the meet's first two months, when her horses seemed to be winning a stakes race each weekend, but trainer Christine Janks still is in the midst of an excellent Arlington season, and she has two chances to win the featured eighth race on Friday.

Two chances in seven, in fact, since only a septet of fillies and mares was entered in the body of the Friday feature, carded at about one mile on grass. Two others, Precocious Kat and Defuhr, were entered for the main track only, and at least one of them, Precocious Kat, becomes a main player if the race is moved to dirt by rain.

The Janks horses, Pretty Jenny and Ms. Lydonia, can handle both dirt and turf, but the question concerning Pretty Jenny, a winner in 6 of her 11 starts, is one of distance as much as surface. Pretty Jenny never has raced around two turns, and though she was successful in a one-turn mile on dirt last season at Arlington, Pretty Jenny has not made a start beyond three-quarters of a mile this year.

"I think the turf is fine for her, but the two turns is a huge question mark," Janks said. "We're trying some different things, because if she's a little more versatile it helps to find races."

Pretty Jenny won her first four starts, but has won only two of seven since then. Janks said Pretty Jenny "lost all chance" when her rider lost his irons at the start of the July 16 J J'sdream, a turf-sprint stakes, and two starts ago, Pretty Jenny was a fast-closing second to the good sprinter Bluesbdancing going six furlongs on dirt.

Ms. Lydonia has never shown the panache of Pretty Jenny, but is a solid racemare with a bankroll approaching a quarter-million dollars - not bad for a 5-year-old with only 22 races.

Ms. Lydonia ran third in a dirt stakes July 22 at Fairmount Park, but at this point seems better on turf. In late June, she won the Lincoln Heritage, an Illinois-bred stakes, at 1 1/16 miles on the Arlington turf.

In the Lincoln Heritage, Ms. Lydonia beat You Dancing Devil by a neck, but at Friday's mile, You Dancing Devil might have an edge. You Dancing Devil has not raced since the Lincoln Heritage, but a fresh horse is not a bad thing, and You Dancing Devil, a three-time winner on the Arlington grass, should get a good ground-saving trip behind a legitimate early pace.