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Virginia goes from one extreme to the other this week, dialing back from last week\u2019s sixteen furlong marathon to a six and a half furlong sprint in this week\u2019s Jenny And Tony Handicap. The race is for fillies and mares, four years and older and it runs on firm turf. A purse of $45000 awaits the best of the field. This is the third annual running of this stakes, won last year by closer Woody\u2019s Zzene<\/b>. The race has drawn a field of six, and it is a tightly matched field. They range in age from four to seven and all are experienced at this level. Oddsmakers threw in the towel again, assigning a pair of 3\/1 favorites and bookending it with a pair of 9\/2 longshots. They say it is anyone\u2019s race, so let\u2019s look at the competitors and draw our own conclusions.<\/p>\n
PP 1) Rider Kristen<\/b> Sired by Johannesburg, Trained by marybarn. Rider Kristen is a four year old filly making her twenty fourth career start here. She has four stakes wins to her credit, all coming during her two year old campaign. Her last ten starts she has garnered a 1-3-2-0-1 record, with no 100+ starts. Her last run was a stakes at this distance on a tough Eastern Kentucky track, where she finished a disappointing eleventh, stumbling as she started to make her move in the second half. She is a veteran turf sprinter, never having raced on dirt, nor run beyond seven furlongs. She has successfully silenced any doubters regarding her trainer\u2019s strategy by putting together seventeen top three finishes in her twenty three starts. She is a deep closer, and her close has been on more than off, but she just hasn\u2019t been able to bring it home recently. A good part of this seem to be due to falling too far behind in the early going. She faces a lot less early speed here, but she\u2019ll have to contend with a few very good closers here. She\u2019ll need a sharp start to best them here.<\/p>\n
PP 2) Sauk Valley Storm<\/b> Sired by Stormin Fever, Trained by jimj2. Sauk Valley Storm makes her twenty ninth career run here, in her four year old season. She has one stakes victory on her resume in two tries at this level. In her last ten starts she has but together a 3-1-1-3-0 record, with one 100+ start. She gained her first career stakes victory in her last race, a six furlong outing in North Carolina, where she shut down a field of nine coming from just off the pace. Her dirt and turf speeds are comparable, though her sprint has generally been better on turf, as well as the bulk of her career successes. She has thrown decent speeds out through nine furlongs, but she definitely appears to be more comfortable sprinting. She runs as a stalker, and has shown some ability to close from the head of midpack. Other than a short three race slump late last year, she has been very consistent, managing to be close in the mix down the stretch. With the lack of early speed here, she could find herself with a piece of the early speed in this one. She hasn\u2019t done well in that position, and will need to run her race her and not burn too much energy in the first half.<\/p>\n
PP 3) Wildest Slew<\/b> Sired by Forest Wildcat, Trained by anymore. Wildest Slew is the third four year old filly in this field and she will make her twenty fourth career start here. She has three stakes victories, all coming late in her two year old and early in her three year old season. Her last ten runs have resulted in a 0-3-1-1-0 record, and no 100+ runs. Her last run was a seven furlong A1y outing, where she finished a very close second in a tight stretch battle. She spent most of her career on dirt, just starting to try turf over her last six starts. The switch seemed to revitalize her and she has shown a nice upswing in speed, and has run very well over the course of her last four. She has raced out to nine furlongs in her career, but she is at her best at the sprint distances. In general, she has been at her best as a midpack closer, liking to run just behind the early pace setters. She has done this quite successfully since her switch to turf, and has shown the ability to close from a bit deeper when she has too. With the leisurely early pace here, she should be in a very nice striking position in the second half here. She could be a threat here if she can hold off the deeper closers.<\/p>\n
PP 4) Gove The Governor<\/b> Sired by Royal Academy, Trained tizdubai. Gove The Governor is a five year old mare, making her twenty eighth run for the wire here. She is no stranger to stakes level, but she is still seeking her first win at this level. Her last ten starts have rewarded her with a 1-3-2-3-0 record with no 100+ runs. Her last race was an eight furlong stakes outing right here in Virginia, where she finished a hard closing third, simply flying in the second half. She has had one career dirt start, and it was quite disappointing. She followed it up by switching back to turf and posting a career best speed. She dialing back to this distance for the first time in over a year, and she seems to like her races a bit longer, which is not unusual for the type of closer she is. She is a pure closer, and her close has been excellent. While the distance is a bit short for her, the slower pace out of the gate here is going to keep her well within striking distance of her explosive close. She will be in the mix down the stretch, and it wouldn\u2019t be a total surprise to see her walk away with this one in the second half.<\/p>\n
PP 5) Soldier\u2019s Girl<\/b> Sired by Forty Niner, Trained by pedroza. Soldier\u2019s Girl makes her forty fifth career start in this race. She is a five year old mare with one stakes win amongst fourteen non-MCOS wins. Her last ten starts have seen her go 3-3-1-1-0 with two 100+ runs. She appeared to be injured in her last start, a seven furlong stakes in Georgia, where she packed it in just out of the gate. She made her first four career starts on dirt, and the switch to turf put her on the fast track to winning fourteen in her next forty starts. She a career sprinter, but it is interesting to note that she has never won in this distance range on turf. All fourteen turf wins have come in the seven to seven and a half furlong range. She runs as a mid pack closer, and her close has been fairly consistent. Over her last ten she has posted some of the best speeds in the field, and she has to be considered a threat to grab her second stakes win here.<\/p>\n
PP 6) Leather Lion<\/b> Sired by Slewdledo, Trained by tazdevil. Leather Lion is the most veteran runner in this field. She is a seven year old mare with forty seven starts behind her. She has three stakes wins over her career, her last coming late in her 2004 campaign. Her last ten starts have gained her a 1-1-1-2-2 record, with no 100+ starts. Her last outing was an A2y run at seven furlongs here in Virginia, where she finished a very close fourth in a tightly contested finish. She has tried dirt early in her career, but her speeds didn\u2019t even come close to her turf speeds, and she hasn\u2019t looked back since. Thirty two of her starts have come in this distance range, and she has earned herself twelve wins. She runs mostly as a midpack closer, but her close has been somewhat spotty as of late. She is not showing the speed that she was in her heyday, but should still have enough to be competitive here. The slower early pace should benefit her and she should be somewhere close at the wire.<\/p>\n
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Well matched field of six sign up for sprint<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":472,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews","category-reviews","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}