Jaywalk to press on to Kentucky Oaks after Ashland third

D. J. Stable and Cash is King’s champion Jaywalk, third in the Central Bank Ashland (G1) as the even-money favorite, remains on track for a Kentucky Oaks bid.

“She’s good this morning,” trainer John Servis said Sunday. “She got pressured by that horse on the outside (Out for a Spin), and (jockey) Javier (Castellano) said she dug in and fought back. She stayed on pretty good.”

After being passed by Out for a Spin and Restless Rider on the far turn, Jaywalk gained ground on those two in the short run through the stretch.

“I told my son Tyler after the race that at least this takes some of the pressure off,” Servis said about the high expectations for the 2018 Eclipse Award winner.

Servis, who finished third in 2016 Central Bank Ashland with Cathryn Sophia before going on to win the Oaks, said the plan is to give Jaywalk one work here before shipping to Churchill Downs April 28.

“I was very happy with her effort," Servis had said Saturday. "I think this sets her up for the Kentucky Oaks. She is right where we want her to be. Hindsight being 20-20, I wish we would have sat off the pace a little bit. I thought she was the best filly.

"I told Javier to put her on the lead. She got pressured from the outside (horses). At the sixteenth pole when they spread out, she went to running again. Javier said we would have been better off if we sat off the pace.”

Commonwealth Stable’s Out for a Spin, who scored a neck victory as a 52-1 shot in Saturday’s race, returned to her home base at Churchill Downs following the victory that earned her a spot in the Oaks starting gate.

Trainer Dallas Stewart, who won the Oaks in 2006 with Lemons Forever, reported via text that Out for a Spin was doing fine Sunday morning.

Runner-up Restless Rider, campaigned by Three Chimneys Farm and Fern Circle Stables, picked up 40 Oaks points in the Ashland. Her total of 62 points is good for eighth on the leaderboard and a guaranteed spot in the Oaks.

With 51 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks, Debby M. Oxley’s sixth-place finisher Chocolate Kisses is virtually guaranteed a spot in the Oaks starting gate as well.

“We tried to change her running style a little bit in the Ashland, so that is just one of those races you draw a line through,” said David Carroll, assistant to trainer Mark Casse. “Mark and the Oxleys will make the decision, but the Kentucky Oaks is definitely on the table. (Chocolate Kisses) will stay at Keeneland until maybe a week before (the Oaks). Keeneland has a great track surface to train on and the barn area is quiet. Horses do very well at Keeneland.”