Jais’s Solitude sharp for return

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like anybody else, Eddie Kenneally would rather be lucky and good than one or the other. Sometimes, however, life and horse racing just don’t work that way.

Kenneally, a native of County Waterford, Ireland, spent part of his 55th St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. hoping the luck of the Irish will find him again sometime soon. Kenneally long ago proved how good he is as a trainer, having won nearly 1,000 races in his 28-year career, including 35 graded stakes.

His 2020-21 winter in Florida has not unfolded as well as Kenneally would have liked, but he will still be returning soon to his primary base in Kentucky with optimism – and plenty of unspent conditions for his horses. Kenneally began this week with a 3-for13 record when vanning his runners from his winter base at the Palm Meadows training center to Tampa Bay Downs, but the shorter ship south to Gulfstream Park has been less productive.

“We’re not going to talk about that, are we?” asked Kenneally, who also has accounted for three Turfway Park winners with the string he maintained back home this winter. “Gee whiz.”

Gulfstream bettors might do themselves a favor when sitting down to handicap the ninth-race feature Friday by overlooking how Kenneally, who has won 117 races at Gulfstream since he began wintering here in 2005, has somehow managed to go winless with his first 38 starters at this championship meet. Kenneally will send out Jais’s Solitude off an eight-month layoff in the 1 3/8-mile turf race, and there’s reason to believe the 5-year-old gelding can get the barn off the schneid. Only four other older horses are in the $53,000 allowance with multi-tiered conditions.

Jais’s Solitude “got really good for us last summer before we had to give him time off,” Kenneally said. “He’s come back to train really well, and we certainly hope he will run to his training.”

Corey Lanerie will be aboard Jais’s Solitude when breaking from post 1 in a threeturn race that also has the uncoupled Saffie Joseph Jr. duo of Monarchs Glen (post 3, Julien Leparoux) and Battalion (post 5, Paco Lopez) as prime contenders.

Monarchs Glen will be back on the bleeder medication Lasix after going without it while finishing last of nine in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf three weeks ago in his first start off the Joseph claim. Battalion dead-heated for win with another horse in here, Bluegrass Parkway (post 4, Tyler Gaffalione), in a Jan. 9 race at this same distance. Epic Bromance (post 2, Joe Bravo) rounds out the cast.

Jais’s Solitude, owned by Black Ship Racing and Homewrecker Racing, earned respective Beyer Speed Figures of 95 and 94 in the Grade 3 Louisville and Grade 2 Elkhorn last summer before going to the sidelines. Those numbers suggest the Florida-bred gelding will be very competitive, especially in consideration of Kenneally’s 7-for-26 mark (27 percent) and $3.01 return on investment with horses returning from layoffs of 180 days or more.

The lone allowance of the day is part of the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 5-10), which was expected to offer a pool guarantee of about $750,000, assuming the jackpot was not swept Wednesday or Thursday by a solo winning ticket. The Rainbow 6 was last emptied March 7 by forceout.

First post for a 10-race card is 1:10 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 5:22. Race 8 will be part of the Stronach 5 cross-country wager, which has a $154,931 jackpot carryover.

A 40 percent chance of showers and a high of 82 are in the Friday forecast, but hopefully all six turf races on the card can proceed as scheduled.