Eclipse Award winner Wait a While, last year’s champion 3-year-old filly, will carry 123 pounds in Saturday’s $200,000 Jenny Wiley (gr. IIT) at Keeneland. The 4-year-old Maria’s Mon filly is the co-topweight in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares, along with Precious Kitten.
Wait a While and Precious Kitten both opened their 2007 seasons on March 4 at Gulfstream Park, where Wait a While defeated Precious Kitten by 1 ¼ lengths in the Honey Fox (gr. IIIT).
Trained by Todd Pletcher for Alan Cohen’s Arindel Farm, Wait a While won five of nine races and earned $1,226,637 in 2006. Her five stakes wins included graded stakes victories on turf and dirt. She concluded last season with a fourth-place finish behind champion Ouija Board in the Emirates Airlines Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (gr. IT). Other notable Jenny Wiley contenders are My Typhoon and Mauralakana, who finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the Filly and Mare Turf.
Precious Kitten, who is trained by Bobby Frankel for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, is a half-sister to 2004 champion turf male Kitten’s Joy. The daughter of Catienus enters the Jenny Wiley with three wins in 11 career starts and earnings of $349,688. Last year, she won the Mrs. Revere (gr. II) at Churchill Downs and the Martha Washington Breeders’ Cup at Laurel.
The field for the 19th running of the Jenny Wiley is as follows:
1--Fantastic Shirl, Edgar Prado, 117 pounds
2--Wait a While, Garrett Gomez, 123
3--Precious Kitten, Rafael Bejarano, 123
4--My Typhoon, Eddie Castro, 119
5—Mauralakana, Julien Leparoux
6--Essential Edge, Javier Castellano, 119