by Karen Briggs, WEG Media

Campbellville, ON — A cool-headed filly named Cool Jazz turned a lot of heads with her performance in the opening leg of the Whenuwishuponastar series for 2-year-old pacing lasses at Mohawk last Thursday night.

The daughter of Rocknroll Hanover, out of the Cam’s Card Shark mare Cool Yankee, front-stepped her way to a 4-3/4 length victory in a sharp 1:56.1, an effort belying her lack of racing experience, given that this was only her second lifetime start.

It has earned her morning line odds of 4-5 in the first of two C$20,000 splits of the Whenuwishuponastar second round on Thursday, July 23 (race one, post time 7:30 p.m.), when she’ll be leaving from post three with Randy Waples in the bike.

Jason Libby trains Cool Jazz, who was a $47,000 yearling purchase at last fall’s Lexington Selected Sale. She is owned by Robert J. Leblanc.

In the second Whenuwishuponastar division (race three, post time 8:08 p.m.), watch for a filly named Major Girl, sent out by conditioner/owner/breeder Gaetan Hebert. This homebred daughter of Art Major-Teenager Girls (by Dexter Nukes) sat out the first leg of this series, but was a confident winner in her second pari-mutuel start, a division of the Robert Stewart Stakes at Mohawk on July 6, trumping pacesetter Western Dancer to win in 1:54.3. She’s been assigned even money odds in her field of seven.

Also in this division is last week’s opening round winner Gussie’s Girl, sent out by John Pentland. The daughter of The Panderosa is the 4-1 second choice in the morning line.

The C$53,00 final of the Whenuwishuponastar Series is slated for Thursday, July 30, at Mohawk.