Illuminant Takes Wishing Well, Jenny Wiley Next

Grade 1 winner Illuminant was impressive enough off a 10-month layoff in the $75,000 Wishing Well Stakes at Santa Anita Park, but she has bigger and better things ahead of her. 

Trainer Michael McCarthy said after her 1 1/4-length victory down the Santa Anita hillside turf course that the 5-year-old Quality Road mare should show up next in the April 15 Coolmore Jenny Wiley (G1T) at Keeneland, a race she finished third—behind champion Tepin—in last year.

"With a grade 1 winner, you just hope to get them back as good as when they left," McCarthy said of last year's Gamely (G1T) winner, who is owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Head of Plains Partners, and SF Racing. "I'd like to think (she'll run in the Jenny Wiley next)."

Jockey Flavien Prat guided the dark brown mare to victory over multiple graded stakes winner Prize Exhibit and was encouraged by the closing win, after Paquita Coqueta and Kera Kera dueled to blistering fractions of :21.09 and :42.94 through a half-mile. Illuminant, who raced in fifth through the first quarter, took command in the early stretch and finished off the about six-and-a-half-furlong sprint in 1:12.27 on firm turf.

"She just did it because she's talented," Prat said of the big-race prep. "She looks better and has trained better than last year, so I'm pretty excited."

McCarthy opted to run Illuminant in a grass sprint over the March 12 Santa Ana (G2T) at 1 1/8 miles because she had experience over the hillside course, where she broke her maiden in October of 2015.

"She's run well down the hill a couple times before, so it was (about) her being comfortable doing this and the way these races set up, sometimes they're more like a mile—run away from there, get position, and sprint home," McCarthy said. "That's really what she needed to sharpen her up."

Bred in Pennsylvania by Sycamore Hall Farm, out of the Polish Numbers mare Sparkling Number, Illuminant now has a 5-2-1 record from 12 starts and earnings of $413,910.