Jenda's Agenda Stretches Out in Weber City Miss

Her career didn't get under way until the first week of January, but so far Jenda's Agenda has done nothing wrong. The undefeated filly will look to stretch her speed and talent April 22 in the $125,000 Weber City Miss at Laurel Park.

For the second straight year, the Weber City Miss for 3-year-old fillies at about 1 1/16 miles is a "Win and You're In" event for the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) May 19 at Pimlico Race Course. The $125,000 Federico Tesio Stakes, a "Win and You're In" race for the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes (G1), is also on the Saturday card.

 

Bred by trainer Larry Jones and his wife, Cindy, out of their grade 2-winning Menifee mare Just Jenda, Jenda's Agenda is three-for-three in her young career. The Proud Citizen filly opened with a pair of wins at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots over the winter, and followed up with a two-length triumph in her stakes debut, the one-mile Caesar's Wish March 18 at Laurel. Rick Porter's Fox Hill Farms purchased an interest following her unveiling. 

Making her Caesar's Wish win even more impressive was the fact that Jenda's Agenda was unable to train much for the race, having been mostly confined to the barn due to cold temperatures that greeted Jones' stable on its return to Delaware Park from New Orleans.

"She ran very, very well," Jones said. "The thing about that race, I was just awful proud of surviving it. We had shipped her out of New Orleans and that filly had only been able to go to the track one day out of 12. She had been hung in the barn just having to (walk the) shed row for that, so I was just awful proud to get out of that race in one piece and with a victory.

"We've had five weeks now to get prepared for this, so we think we got her back up and ready to go. Any time you trade tracks you do all kinds of things and you just can't really get into full mode of training for a little while. We're happy right now. She had a really good breeze the other day and all is good."

Trevor McCarthy replaces regular rider Gabriel Saez aboard Jenda's Agenda, who has led at nearly every call through her first three races, though Jones said it has been more a matter of circumstance than necessity.

"She's just fast," he explained. "Actually in (the last race) we were third for a little while until Gabriel kind of tucked over behind them and came on up in there. He had an opportunity to get up between horses and kind of split, when he saw it was going to get tight when the outside horse started easing down to crowd her and race-ride her a little bit. He just let her out a notch to get out of any trouble. She'll do whatever you tell her to. This filly is pretty push-button. So far she's answered all the questions that we've asked of her."

Two of the three horses that faced Jenda's Agenda in the Caesar's Wish, Forever Liesl and Star Super, return in the Weber City Miss.

Kallenberg Farms' Forever Liesl is making her fourth straight start at Laurel. She broke her maiden Dec. 31 and ran third in the seven-furlong Wide Country Stakes Feb. 18 prior to her runner-up finish in the Caesar's Wish.

Equine Prep's Star Super is the most experienced filly in the Weber City Miss with eight previous starts, the last six of them in stakes. She won the Jan. 21 Marshua Stakes and finished second in the Gin Talking Stakes and Smart Halo Stakes, all at Laurel, and was third in the Sorority Stakes last fall at Monmouth Park.

Sumaya U.S. Stable's Lights of Medina, an impressive maiden winner at Laurel March 26, is entered to make her stakes debut in the Weber City Miss. Trained by Todd Pletcher, she was heavily favored last time out in a one-mile maiden special weight, her fourth start and first at Laurel.

"She's a filly that we've always felt like had some real potential, and it was just a matter of kind of getting her stretched out a little bit. I think eventually down the road she's a filly that will appreciate plenty of distance," Pletcher said. "It's a little bit of a step up going from a maiden to a stake, but she's got a pretty good foundation of races underneath her for that."

George H. Hall's maiden winner Frank's Folly, fourth in the Jan. 15 Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack in her only previous stakes try, completes the field.

Weber City Miss S.

Laurel Park, Saturday, April 22, 2017, Race 4

• STK
• About 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $125,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 2:50 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Lights of Medina (KY)	Feargal Lynch	116	Todd A. Pletcher	7/2
2	2Frank's Folly (KY)	Alex Cintron	116	Kelly J. Breen	15/1
3	3Jenda's Agenda (KY)	Trevor McCarthy	122	J. Larry Jones	3/5
4	4Forever Liesl (FL)	Jevian Toledo	116	Michelle Nevin	4/1
5	5Star Super (KY)	Sheldon Russell	116	Cathal A. Lynch	10/1