Rushing Fall needs to bring ‘A’ game again in Jenny Wiley

It took about three workouts in January and February for Chad Brown to see what he wanted: Rushing Fall was back.

Now Rushing Fall is back at Keeneland, where she has done much of her best work, trying to win the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley for the second year in a row.

Rushing Fall is one of eight entrants in a loaded renewal of the Jenny Wiley, a 1 1/16mile grass race worth $350,000 this year. She’s even-money on the track’s morning line but has several worthy challengers, including Toinette, Juliet Foxtrot, and Jolie Olimpica.

Five-year-old Rushing Fall, a More than Ready mare owned by Bob Edwards’s e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, came into the First Lady Stakes last fall at Keeneland with 8 wins and 2 seconds from 10 starts and a 4-for-4 Keeneland turf-course record, but she wasn’t herself that afternoon. Rushing Fall dropped well behind a strong pace and never looked like a winner, checking in fourth. Just after the race, Edwards conceded Rushing Fall hadn’t been shining in her recent training, but that he intended to race her again in 2020.

Rushing Fall hit the work tab in late January, early enough that she still could have been bred this year if she didn’t look right. But Brown liked what he saw from the start.

“She was looking as good as ever,” he said. “It gave me the confidence to believe in her this year.”

Rushing Fall returned to racing June 3 in the Grade 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont, and as she’s done so often controlled the tempo, sprinted home, and left her opponents with little chance. The 103 Beyer Speed Figure she earned equaled her career best, and Brown said the mare has trained impressively between starts.

Rushing Fall breaks from post 4 under regular rider Javier Castellano, and while she’ll be prominent early, stretchout sprinter Jolie Olimpica, drawn to her outside, also could go for the lead.

“It’s not ideal, but she’s a pretty rateable horse, and Javier will have his options,” Brown said.

Jolie Olimpica, in from California for trainer Richard Mandella, dominated her opposition in Brazil and has won two turf sprints since being purchased by Rick Porter’s Fox Hill Farms and imported to America. In the one-mile Buena Vista Stakes on Feb. 22 at Santa Anita, she raced slightly too keenly on the lead and compromised her stretch run, finishing second to Keeper Ofthe Stars, who did return to win the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes.

If jockey Mike Smith can get Jolie Olimpica switched off, she’s a win threat, as is another California shipper Toinette. Toinette beat Rushing Fall in their lone meeting, the 2018 Edgewood Stakes, run over a Churchill Downs course softer than the listed firm condition. Continued rain into the weekend at Keeneland “wouldn’t hurt” Toinette, trainer Neil Drysdale said.

“It’s a proper Grade 1,” Drysdale said. “Both the speed horses [Rushing Fall and Jolie Olimpica] are very, very good. Toinette had a good race last time, and while I’d have preferred another week, it is what it is, and she’s traveled there well.”

Juliet Foxtrot knocked on the door in a pair of Grade 1 starts last year, including a secondplace finish to champion mare Uni in the First Lady at Keeneland last fall. She was brought back for a 5-year-old campaign to try and win a Grade 1, but comes into the Jenny Wiley after a subpar 2020 debut in the Grade 3 Mint Julep at Churchill, where she showed pace and faded to sixth.

“She just was a little aggressive last time,” trainer Brad Cox said. “She was cranked up ready to run in April, had to back off and get her ready again. We’ll see what happens, but we’re very pleased with her last couple works, where we tried to get her relaxed.”

Secret Message, a deep closer, will hope for a strong, contested pace, a dynamic that also would help Brown’s second runner Altea, who had a troubled trip last out. Mucho Unusual, who might be closer to 20-1 than her 8-1 morning-line odds, completes the field.