Spanish Loveaffair Tops Field for Grade 2 Chase Jessamine

Undefeated Spanish Loveaffair (Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Michael Hernon and Gary Barber) headlines a field of 11 2-year-old fillies entered for the 30th running of the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine Stakes (G2) going 1 1/16 miles on the Keeneland Racecourse turf course on Wednesday, October 7.

The JPMorgan Chase Jessamine is the final of Keeneland's 10 Breeders' Cup Challenge races that awards the winners fees-paid berths into corresponding races for the 37th World Championships to be held here Nov. 6-7. Wednesday's winner earns a spot in the starting gate for the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) to be run November 6.

The JPMorgan Chase Jessamine will go as the seventh race on Wednesday's eight-race program with a 4:24 p.m. ET post time. First post is 1:05 p.m.

Trained by Mark Casse, who won this race in 2016 with La Coronel, Spanish Loveaffair has won both of her starts going a mile over the turf at Gulfstream Park. In her most recent outing, she won the Sharp Susan by 1¼ lengths as the 1-2 favorite.

Tyler Gaffalione has the mount on Spanish Loveaffair and will break from post position 10.

The only other entrants with stakes experience are Ben and Sheila Rollins' Beautiful Star and Mark Norman's Taylor's Tourist.

Steve Asmussen trains Beautiful Star, who was fifth in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies (L) on Sept. 7. Adam Beschizza has the mount and will break from post position four.

Asmussen also will send out Kentucky Downs debut maiden winner Arm Candy for the partnership of Bradley Thoroughbreds, Tim Cambron, Anna Cambron and Kurz Equine Investments. Ricardo Santana Jr. will ride from post position six.

Trained by Scott Gelner, Taylor's Tourist was second in her turf debut in the Untapable at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 15. Robby Albarado has the mount and will break from post position three.

The field for the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Batyah (David Cohen, 118 pounds), Momentous Miss (James Graham, 118), Taylor's Tourist (Albarado, 118), Beautiful Star (Beschizza, 118),Ingrassia (Javier Castellano, 118), Arm Candy (Santana Jr., 118), Aunt Pearl (IRE) (Florent Geroux, 118), Navratilova (Julien Leparoux, 118), Gambling Cat (Corey Lanerie, 118), Spanish Loveaffair (Gaffalione, 120) and Lazy Summer Day (Brian Hernandez Jr., 118).

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