Evening Jewel, the leading earner on the year for Northern Afleet, was pre-entered in a pair of Breeders’ Cup events: the Filly and Mare Sprint and the Ladies’ Classic, both Grade 1 races, but when the official post position draw came out on Tuesday, Nov. 1,  the filly’s connections gave preference to the Sprint, which wound up with a full field of 16, including the two also-eligibles.

The James Cassidy trainee drew post position 5 for Friday’s $1 million race, which will go off at 5:30 pm ET. Evening Jewel will be making her first start at seven furlongs, but her versatility at a variety of distances and surfaces makes her a very attractive proposition in this deep field of top class fillies and mares.

Evening Jewel will be returning to Churchill Downs to make amends for the most heartbreaking loss of her career. Her loss to Blind Luck in the Apr. 30 Kentucky Oaks (G1) was a tough one to take for Cassidy, but his star 3-year-old has bounced back in fine style.

She returned to her California base to reel off three straight graded stakes scores: Honeymoon H. (G2), San Clemente (G2), and Del Mar Oaks (G1), all on the grass. In her most recent start, she was third in the QEII Cup (G1), also on the turf, at Keeneland.

Evening Jewel’s career record stands at an impressive 6-5-1 in 13 starts, with earnings of $916,943.

Evening Jewel is the first foal out of Jewel of the Night, who is a half-sister to the multiple stakes winners Saucey Evening and Petition the Lady. She also comes from the same family that includes multiple Grade 1 winner General Challenge.

Northern Afleet has 121 winners and 58 repeat winners, both rank in the top 12 on the North American general sire list for 2010.