Summer of Fun will vie for California trip by winning the Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland
Trainer George Weaver would love to continue his successful run at Kentucky, his hometown, after getting into the conversation in Canada and New York, and if all goes well for the 41-year-old trainer, California might be his last stop this autumn to make a very good season great.
The trainer was absolutely elated to see his 2-year-old trainee, Summer of Fun, winning her two-turn maiden race at Saratoga on 25 August, on the Travers Stakes undercard, but would have been devastated to see the same filly finish a disappointing 10th in the one mile long Grade 2 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine.
On 15 September, 2012, over Woodbine’s yielding turf course under jockey Rajiv Maragh never looked well running behind horses, and didn’t exactly know what to do next as she bobbled, but one bad run can’t have a major impact on what George Weaver chooses for her next.
“We like this filly a lot, and I was pretty confident she would do well in the race she won on Travers Day,” said Weaver, 41. “The race in Canada, we sure didn’t go over there to finish 10th. She was bogging down and bobbling and actually never had much of a chance to run when behind horses. We’re taking the race for what it was and sending her to Keeneland with the idea that she fits really well in there.”
With a hope to enter Summer of Fun in the Breeders’ Cup Championships at Santa Anita this year, George Weaver will be entering his filly in the Grade 3, $150,000 Jessamine Stakes on 11 October, 2012, at Keeneland, which turns out to be the eighth and final “Win and You’re In” Challenge race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on 2 November, 2012.
Bona Venture Stables’ juvenile filly, Summer of Fun, will be one of 13, 2-year-old fillies to run over a distance of 1 1/16 miles, and this time she will be reunited with rider Eddie Castro.
The race will make some difficult handicapping, because except Zip Cash Back, who won her maiden and a stakes race at Colonial Downs, every other participant has one once up till now.
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