Gina Romantica Headlines Entries For Jenny Wiley

Peter Brant's Gina Romantica will make her 2024 debut when she headlines a field of 10 entered for the 36th running of the $600,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1) for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Keeneland Racecourse on Saturday, April 13.

The Jenny Wiley will go as the ninth race on the 11-race program with a 5:16 p.m. ET post time. First post is a 1 p.m.

Gina Romantica will be making her first start since finishing fourth, beaten a length, against the boys in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF last November at Santa Anita.

Trained by Chad Brown, Gina Romantica is a two-time Grade 1 winner at Keeneland. She took the 2022 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Dixiana and the 2023 First Lady Presented by UK HealthCare. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount from post 6.

Brown, who has won five of the past six runnings of the Jenny Wiley and six overall, also will send out Head of Plains Partners' Fluffy Socks, Klaravich Stables' Surge Capacity and Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb and Louis Lazzinnaro's Beaute Cachee (FR). Irad Ortiz Jr. has the mount from post 2 on Fluffy Socks, Joel Rosario will pilot Surge Capacity from post 7 and Frankie Dettori will ride Beaute Cachee from post 10.

Chief rivals to Gina Romantica figure to be Merriebelle Stable's Didia (ARG) and Godolphin's English Rose (IRE).

Trained by Ignacio Correas IV, Didia returns to the races following a victory in the TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational (G2) at Gulfstream Park. Winner of six of eight races in the U.S., Didia will be ridden by Jose Ortiz from post 9.

Charlie Appleby trains English Rose, a winner of three of four starts with her most recent start producing a victory in the Balanchine (G2) in Dubai. William Buick has the mount from post 5.

Didia Goes For Grade 1 Glory in Jenny Wiley

With a steady rain coming down Wednesday morning and more of the same in the forecast for the next two days, the question posed to trainer Ignacio Correas IV was a pretty easy one.

How does Didia (ARG) handle a soft turf course?

"Beats me. She's never run on a soft course," Correas said of the 6-year-old daughter of Orpen who figures to be one of the main players in Saturday's $600,000 Jenny Wiley (G1) to be run at 1 1/16 over the Keeneland turf course. "But the Orpens tend to like it."

Owned by Merriebelle Stable and Resolute Racing, Didia arrived in Correas' barn in the spring of 2022 following two open-length victories in Group 1 company in Argentina. In those two years, Didia has had all of her timed works at Keeneland save for two last fall at Santa Anita before the Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) and one at Gulfstream Park before the TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational (G2).

Didia has compiled an 8-6-1-0 mark in North America with the lone defeats coming in Grade 1 tests with her only off-the-board finish coming in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November in which she was 10th.

"That was a big race for her (despite the finish)," Correas said. "A very good race to only get beat 4½ lengths by some of the best horses in the world."

Didia opened her 2024 campaign with a narrow victory as the favorite in a field of 11 in the Pegasus on Jan. 27. Jose Ortiz was aboard that day for the first time and he will have the mount Saturday.

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Grade 1 Winner Gina Romantica Tops Nominees to Jenny Wiley

Apr 1 - Peter Brant's Gina Romantica, winner of the 2022 Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana and the 2023 First Lady (G1) Presented by UK HealthCare, headlines a roster of 27 fillies and mares nominated to the 36th running of the $600,000 Jenny Wiley (G1) to be contested at 1 1/16 miles over the turf course on Saturday, April 13.

Gina Romantica is trained by Chad Brown, who has saddled six winners of the Jenny Wiley including five of the past six runnings. Brown has nominated seven runners to this year's race. Following her First Lady victory last year, Gina Romantica took on the boys in the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF and finished fourth, beaten a length by winner Master of The Seas (IRE).

Entries for the Jenny Wiley will be taken Saturday.

Two other stakes will be contested April 13: the 42nd running of the $400,000 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the main track and the 27th running of the $300,000 Giant's Causeway (G3) for fillies and mares going 5½ furlongs on the grass.

The Stonestreet Lexington is the final race on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and offers 42 points on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale for the first- through fifth-place finishers. The Derby is limited to the top 20 point earners and invitees.

The race attracted 56 nominations, including two horses currently in the top 20 of Derby point earners with three 200-point races scheduled this weekend. They are Lance Gasaway, 4 G Racing and Daniel Hamby III's Mystik Dan (46 points), third in Saturday's Arkansas Derby (G1) for trainer Kenny McPeek, and D.J. Stable and Robert Cotran's Hades (30 points), fifth in Saturday's Curlin Florida Derby (G1) Presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa for trainer Joe Orseno.

Stonestreet Stables' Love Reigns (IRE) tops the list of 32 nominees to the Giant's Causeway. A winner of two of three races, the Wesley Ward trainee captured the FanDuel Limestone (L) here last spring.

About the Jenny Wiley Stakes

The Jenny Wiley Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually during the second week of April at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky. The Grade II turf event is for fillies and Mares, age four and older and is contested at a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles.

The Jenny Wiley Stakes is named for Jenny Wiley, a pregnant pioneer woman captured in Kentucky by Native Americans in 1789 and who escaped after almost a year in captivity. Inaugurated in 1989 as a Listed race, in 1995 the Jenny Wiley Stakes was elevated to Grade III status and to a Grade II event in 2006.