Jumping the Gun returns – at last – in Weber City Miss
Filly favored with Black-Eyed Susan berth on the line
Frank Vespe
April 15, 2026
Jumping the Gun didn’t do much wrong as a two-year-old. But she hasn’t done much of anything thus far as a three-year-old.
That streak will end Saturday, when she contests the $150,000 Weber City Miss Stakes with automatic entrance to the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan May 15 on the line. Jumping the Gun is the 7-5 morning line favorite and will have regular pilot Julio Hernandez in the irons.
“She’s doing great and training good,” said Jumping the Gun’s trainer, Andy Simoff. “Everything’s good. She had the winter off, so hopefully she’s ready.”
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Jumping the Gun, by Gun Runner, is a homebred for John Guarnere’s Imaginary Stables. She made short work of her rivals at Delaware Park last summer, graduating at first asking and then winning the Blue Hen and Small Wonder Stakes.
Those races were all at six furlongs or shorter. In a pair of two-turn tries – in Delaware’s one-mile White Clay Creek and Aqueduct’s Grade 2 Demoiselle – she ran second.
Maybe it was the distance, but the rugged company was certainly a factor, too. The former race went to Dazzling Dame, who then won the Busanda before running second in the Virginia Oaks, while the latter was won by Zany, who took the Suncoast next out and then was the beaten favorite in the Grade 1 Ashland.
Overall, Jumping the Gun is 3-for-5 with $208,750 in earnings.
While many trainers aim their good horses at the many three-year-old races on offer, Simoff and Guarnere pursued a different path: they put Jumping the Gun away following the Dec. 6 Demoiselle.
“It was just time,” Simoff said. “She’d run hard as a two-year-old, so we figured we’d just give her some time to relax. I brought her home to my farm in Chester County (PA) for two months.”
In that time, Simoff said, Jumping the Gun has “filled out” and become “more mature. You figure they’re going to do that as they become 3-year-olds.”
Since returning to work, Jumping the Gun has posted six recorded breezes, two at three furlongs, two at four, and one each at five and six furlongs. Most recently, she breezed six furlongs in 1:12 4/5 at Simoff’s Delaware Park base.
“I like the way she’s training,” the conditioner said. “She’s galloping out good, and while her works are not real fast, she’s galloping out well and hopefully ready to move forward.”
The Weber City Miss has drawn a field of nine to go 1 1/16 miles, and Jumping the Gun is in the eight-hole. With the short run to the turn at this trip, “the post isn’t the greatest,” Simoff acknowledged.
On the other hand, it does not appear that there are runners of quite the caliber of Dazzling Dame or Zany in the field. Parx Future Stars Fillies Division winner Law School is the 7-2 second choice on the morning line, but her recent form is not inspiring.
Also set to contend are Beyond the Wire winner Miss Fulton Gal (6-1), last-out Aqueduct maiden winner Three Sixty (6-1), Main Line Stakes winner Ivy Girl (12-1), and A. P.’s Girl (10-1), who is 2-for-3 on dirt at the Fair Grounds.
“It’s competitive, but it seems like a good spot,” said Simoff. “I don’t think there’s any real bears in there. With all the real good fillies going for the Oaks, I was kind of assuming it would be a good spot. If she moves forward a little bit, I think she can win.”
If she does, you can look for her to make her next start in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on Preakness eve.
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