Keeneland: Didia could get 1st soft-turf test 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 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 Grade 1, $600,000 Jenny Wiley to be run at 1 1/16 miles 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 after 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 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and one at Gulfstream Park before the 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 4 1/2 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.