Jaywalk Gets Mojo Back With Sharp Delaware Oaks Win
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Photo: Hoofprints, Inc.
Jaywalk is alone at the wire in the Delaware Oaks at Delaware Park
A spiffy set of blinkers, some class relief, and plenty of time to prepare put Jaywalk in a perfect position to sparkle, and the champion juvenile filly of 2018 did just that July 6 in the $288,000 Delaware Oaks (G3).
The 3-year-old daughter of Cross Traffic was unraced since the May 3 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1)—where she crossed the line sixth but was disqualified and placed last for coming out at the start and causing Positive Spirit to fall—but her nine-length score Saturday at Delaware Park proved trainer John Servis has her back in top form.
With Joe Bravo in the irons, Jaywalk broke first of six and quickly took charge, rating along comfortably just off the inside through fractions of :24.12, :47.77, and 1:10.72. With a 3 1/2-length lead in the stretch, the 7-5 second choice shrugged off a bid from 4-5 favorite Fashion Faux Pas and widened away under hand urging through a 1:36.76 mile, geared down in the last 70 yards. The final time for the 1 1/16-mile test was 1:43.21 on a fast track. It was another four lengths back to Ujjayi in third.
Owned by D.J. Stable and Cash is King, Jaywalk raised her record to five wins from nine starts with earnings of $1,611,500 and took home her long-awaited first win of the season. In her 2019 debut, she finished fourth in the Davona Dale Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park, followed by a third in the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) at Keeneland before her Kentucky Oaks run. Last year, she won the $50,875 White Clay Creek Stakes at Delaware before closing her championship 2-year-old campaign with victories in the Frizette Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park and the Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Churchill Downs.
"When she came back after her first race earlier in the year, I thought maybe she needed the race, so I started bearing down on her a little bit with her works, and that is probably the worst thing I could have done," Servis said. "She just did not respond well to it. She is the kind of filly that can go out there and work fast, and you saw the fractions today and he did not lay the stick on her, so we just wiped the slate clean, gave her a little bit of time, and freshened her. We went back to the old routine with what we did last year with the two-minute licks and putting those long quicker miles in her, and she responded.
"That was my girl today. It felt very, very good when she started opening up. You know with horses, sometimes you got to figure them out, and we get caught up in the shuffle sometimes, and you got to go back to square one."
Bred in Kentucky by Gainesway Thoroughbreds out of the Orientate mare Lady Pewitt, Jaywalk was a $190,000 purchase by Servis from Gainesway's consignment to the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Her dam foaled an Empire Maker colt May 29 and produced a filly by the same sire in 2018.