Nine of the 11 runners in Saturday's GI Coolmore Jenny Wiley S. at Keeneland made their prior starts in Florida, with the other two having spent the winter there. Dona Bruja (Arg) (Storm Embrujado {Arg}) is one of the main contenders off the strength of her four-length success in Tampa's GIII Endeavour S. Feb. 10. The Argentinian Group 1 winner took her first two starts in graded company here last summer, and was a close second in the GI Beverly D. S. in August. She found the one mile of the local GI First Lady S. a bit too sharp when fourth Oct. 7, but kicked off her season auspiciously when clearly best over GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup heroine La Coronel (Colonel John).
“Running in a Grade I at Keeneland-it can't get better than that and you can't be more excited than that,” Dona Bruja's trainer Nacho Correas said. “We have our horse the way we want, and that's all we can do.”
La Coronel ran back in the GII Hillsborough S. Mar. 10, and hooked four of these rivals. She checked in third behind Fourstar Crook (Freud) and Proctor's Ledge (Ghostzapper), and ahead of the former's Grade I-winning stablemate Off Limits (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) and MGSW Lovely Bernadette (Wilburn). Fourstar Crook and Off Limits are conditioned by Eclipse-winning trainer Chad Brown, as is French Group 3 winner/Group 1-placed Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}), off since a close second behind yet another Brown pupil in New Money Honey (Medaglia d'Oro) in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational.
“We have different goals for the three of them,” said Brown of having multiple entrants in the same race, as he frequently does. “The race is available. The timing's good. There's not a lot of options this time of year for horses of this caliber. We'll get them started here and see what happens.”
Cambodia (War Front) took a pair of Grade II races at Del Mar last summer, and was a strong third in the GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf before finding trouble and checking in fourth in the GI Matriarch S. Nov. 26.
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