Heading into last Saturday’s latest edition of the $75,000 My Sister Pearl Stakes for West Virginia-bred fillies and mares, trainer Kristy Petty was hoping that her talented homebred trainee Hessica would get a storybook ending to her career.

Sent off as the even-money favorite, though, Hessica would settle for runner-up honors in a dead-heat with Change The World in the 1 1/8-mile test.

“It really was a bittersweet moment,” Petty said. “I would have loved to see Hessica go out with a win. She’s meant the world to me the last three years. She won the Cavada twice and then she finished second in that race this year. But it was time to stop with her and let her enjoy life on the farm and start a new career as a mom. She’s always going to have a home now, and hopefully some of her foals will turn out to be as good as her.”

Better yet for Petty, she needed little consoling in the moments afterward since her other trainee in the field, Juba’s Parade, forged a mild 4-1 upset under jockey Wilfredo Santiago while stopping the timer in 1:55.88.

A five-year-old Juba mare owned, bred and trained by Petty, a former stakes-winning jockey at the oval, Hessica concluded her 2024 season with a 3-5-1 slate and over $135,000 banked from nine outings. In her career, she registered a solid 9-8-7 slate and exactly $404,000 banked from 32 lifetime tries.

Hessica’s career highlights include a pair of wins in the Cavada and another recent score in the Sadie Hawkins. Prior to the My Sister Pearl, she was most recently second to the talented three-year-old filly Overnight Pow Wow in the Cavada on a night when five Petty trainees finished second in stakes races.

“She really had a very good campaign,” Petty said. “She was never worse than third in nine starts this year and she was really good the last four or five starts. I thought she came into the Cavada perfect. She just got beat by racing luck. She finished well to get second. If she had won that night, that probably would have been her last start. But she ran well so I wanted to give her one more chance to go out with a victory. It didn’t happen, but I was proud of her.”

Hessica earned her share of the spotlight over the previous two seasons by taking the Cavada on consecutive occasions, a feat previously accomplished only by Original Gold. Stablemate Juba’s Parade, meanwhile, has flown well below the radar.

A four-year-old daughter of Juba that Petty owns and trains, Juba’s Parade concluded her 2024 season with a 3-3-1 slate and nearly $120,000 banked from 12 starts. She has seven wins and nearly $230,000 banked from 25 career outings after notching her first stakes score in the My Sister Pearl.

“She’s had a very busy campaign and she’s going home to the farm,” said Petty, who boasts 24 wins and over $920,000 banked from 151 starters this year heading into the last five weeks of racing at the oval. “She ran well on Breeders Classics night and she loves the distance. When she made the lead turning for home I knew she was going to be tough to catch. Hessica tried to catch her, but Juba’s Parade was just too tough.”

All in all, it may be an enviable spot for Petty. Just as her five-year-old star is headed to the breeding shed, four-year-old Juba’s Parade is coming into her own.

“They both have been good to me and they’re both back at the farm now,” Petty said. “Hessica is retired, but Juba’s Parade will be back at the track next spring.”

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