Navratilova looks to ace Jenny Wiley competition

Trainer Rusty Arnold has seven Grade 1 victories on his Keeneland resume, a total that includes a victory by G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s Centre Court in the 2013 Jenny Wiley. 

On Saturday, Centre Court’s daughter Navratilova, a Humphrey homebred, will try to add to the family legacy when she goes to the gate under jockey Colby Hernandez in a field of six in the 34th running of the $500,000 grass test over 1 1/16 miles. 

“They are not that similar,” Arnold said of mother and daughter. “Centre Court was bigger and stronger, but the best distance for both of them is a mile to a mile and a sixteenth.” 

Centre Court won six graded stakes and earned $961,048. In addition to winning the Jenny Wiley, she ran second in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) in 2012. 

Navratilova notched her first graded stakes victory in last fall’s Rubicon Valley View (G3) before returning with a third-place finish in the 1-mile Honey Fox (G3) at Gulfstream Park on March 5. 

“She had a good winter and then in the Honey Fox she had a tough post (11),” Arnold said. “We tried to chase a Chad Brown horse (In Italian [GB]) and that probably cost her second.” 

Navratilova has a fan in her namesake: nine-time Wimbledon women’s singles champion Martina Navratilova, who ruled the Centre Court at the All England Club from 1978-90. 

“I have heard that Martina has Tweeted about her on her account,” Arnold said. “She is aware there is a good filly named after her.”