Photo: Hollywood Park
Trainer Jim Cassidy said that Evening Jewel would
make her first start on grass in the $150,000 Grade II Honeymoon Handicap for
3-year-old fillies on May 31 after an encouraging turf work here Sunday.
“I was very happy with her,” said Cassidy after the
filly worked a bullet six furlongs in 1:12.80 under exercise rider Lauren
Robson. “She couldn’t have handled it any better. She went out pretty good and
finished pretty good.”
Evening Jewel has glistened on synthetics and dirt to
rank among the leaders in the 3-year-old filly division. In pulsating photo
finishes in her last three Grade I races, she has sandwiched a victory in the
Ashland Stakes between seconds to Blind Luck in the Las Virgenes Stakes and
Kentucky Oaks, respectively.
“In Kentucky,
they told us that was the most exciting Kentucky Oaks they have ever had,” said
Cassidy. “I was also considering Evening Jewel for the Hollywood Oaks (June 6),
but with Blind Luck going in there, I didn’t see the sense in the two of us
beating each other up again.”
California-bred Evening Jewel has recorded
three firsts and five seconds in nine starts and earned $516,943 for the Braly
Family Trust. She will be ridden by Victor Espinoza.
Other probable starters include Andina (Joe Talamo),
City to City (Joel Rosario), Cozi Rosie (Mike Smith), Dreamed to Dream (Brice
Blanc), In the Slips (Rafael Bejarano) and Triple Cream (Tyler Baze).
In the Slips, third-place finisher in the Providencia
Stakes at Santa Anita in her last start April 3, worked five furlongs in
1:01.20 on grass.