Jouster stretches out in $100K Perfect Sting

Starlight Racing and Glen Hill Farm’s Grade 2-winner Jouster will return to the one-mile distance for the first time since March in Sunday’s $100,000 Perfect Sting for older fillies and mares over the Widener turf at Belmont Park.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, Jouster arrives from a good third-place finish in the Grade 3 Intercontinental sprinting six furlongs on June 10 at Belmont. Ridden by Flavien Prat, the 4-year-old daughter of Noble Mission stalked the pace in seventh and needed running room as she was angled wide by Prat at the top of the stretch. Jouster had to angle out even further at the sixteenth pole and ran out of ground as she got into gear, holding onto show honors by a head and nosed out of second by Star Devine.

“She’s doing good. We liked her last race and we wish it was just a tick further,” said Pletcher. “She had to wait for a seam a little bit and once she got clear, she was closing well and ran out of ground.”

Jouster graduated impressively with an 8 3/4-length romp at third asking in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight last January at Gulfstream Park. She won a first-level allowance that February and finished a close second one month later in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs en route to her lone graded score in the Grade 2 Appalachian going the Perfect Sting distance in April 2021 at Keeneland.

“We’ll try stretching her back out to the mile and see how she is,” said Pletcher. “She seems like she’s gotten a little more relaxed and she finished up strongly [last time].”

Jouster will emerge from the inside post with Luis Saez in the irons.