The second of four Fall Meet Saturdays at Keeneland features the Grade 1 $750,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. The centerpiece for 3-year-old fillies annually draws international interest over a 1-1/8 miles trip. Raiders from France, Ireland and Canada are among the prospects. Last year’s winner Mawj shipped from overseas to dazzle and then nearly wired the Breeders’ Cup Mile a few weeks later at Santa Anita.
Horseplayers at Xpressbet and 1/ST BET can take advantage of a 1 Million 1/ST Rewards Points Hit & Split promotion on the late pick 4 each racing day at Keeneland. Saturday’s sequence includes this featured race.
Let’s meet the contenders for the QE2 (Race 8):
#1-PIN UP BETTY: Trainer Mike Maker’s filly has won 2 of 12, both at Churchill in back-to-back spring starts, including the Grade 3 Regret Stakes. After mixed results in Kentucky and New York since, she reunites with her Churchill-winning pilot Luis Saez on Saturday. Maker won this race in 2013 with Kitten’s Dumplings.
#2-CAITLINHERGRTNESS: Canadian-bred won her nation’s biggest race, the $1 million King’s Plate at Woodbine, in her most recent start against the boys. Her summer included a runner-up in the Woodbine Oaks as well as a turf allowance win at Woodbine (her only start on grass in 7 outings). Trainer Kevin Attard turns the reins over to Frankie Dettori, who won last week’s Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland aboard May Day Rose in a 3-way thriller.
#3-SHE FEELS PRETTY: Last year’s favorite and third-place finisher in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf returned a winner Preakness weekend at Pimlico in the Hilltop Stakes. She’s since dropped a couple of narrow decisions in New York, but trainer Cherie DeVaux’s runners were absolutely on point opening week at Keeneland and she could be coming up to a big effort. Jockey John Velazquez has won the QE2 a record 5 times, most recently in 2019.
#4-WAVES OF MISCHIEF: Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes winner and Dueling Grounds Oaks runner-up earned back her $575,000 purchase price during her 5-start campaign this season. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione won opening week’s $1.25 million Turf Mile aboard Carl Spackler and looks for back-to-back Saturday feature scores. Brendan Walsh trains the daughter of Into Mischief.
#5-SOPRANO: Based in Newmarket, English classic-winning trainer George Boughey brings his Group 1 Matron Stakes third-place finisher across the Atlantic for the first time. But she’s had success aboard, winning a Group 3 in France in her prior outing over a mile. That’s been her go-to trip and the QE2 will extend her farther than she’s been to date. Daughter of top-class sprinter Starspangledbanner, pacesetter in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Sprint before tiring to 10th in his only US appearance. Irish jockey Billy Loughnane has been riding professionally for two years and makes his first Keeneland foray.
#6-OVERSUBSCRIBED: Most lightly raced member of the field has won half of her 4 starts, including Aqueduct’s Wild Applause Stakes in June. He narrowly missed next out as the favorite in Saratoga’s Grade 3 Lake George behind Saturday return rival Pounce. Trainer Chad Brown already scored a Grade 1 double at the Fall Meet winning last week’s Turf Mile (Carl Spackler) and First Lady (Gina Romantica). Brown has won this race a record 5 times (2012, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022).
#7-BUCHU: Course specialist aims for a sweep of Keeneland’s turf stakes from ages 2 to 3, already having won last year’s Jessamine and this spring’s Appalachian. The bad news for the Phil Bauer trainee is that she’s 0-5 in all other races surrounding those signature local scores. Rushing Fall pulled off this trio of stakes victories in her path during the 2017-’18 seasons. Jockey Junior Alvarado takes the call for the first time in the homecoming bid.
#8-POUNCE: Mark Casse’s multiple Grade 3 winner from Gulfstream and Saratoga disappointed in her only Keeneland appearance when a tiring 10th in the Grade 3 Appalachian Stakes during the Spring Meet. Exits a troubled trip sprinting in the Music City Stakes at Kentucky Downs, but the QE2 will be the first time for her beyond one mile. Casse won this race in 2017 with La Coronel. Jose Ortiz rides for the first time, and note his opening weekend at Keeneland including wins in the Grade 1 First Lady on turf (Gina Romantica) and Grade 2 TCA on dirt (Zeitlos).
#9-GRAYOSH: Upset winner of Saratoga’s Grade 2 Lake Placid at 7-1 odds, she’ll try to give trainer Chad Brown a record-padding sixth win in the QE2. Joins stablemate Oversubscribed in the lineup. The barn’s Fall Meet already includes wins in last week’s Turf Mile (Carl Spackler) and First Lady (Gina Romantica). Jockey Flavien Prat teamed with Brown to win this race in 2021 (Shantisara) and 2022 (Gina Romantica). From the first crop of versatile Yoshida, a Grade 1 winner on turf and dirt.
#10-CANDALA: French filly makes her first trip out of her native country after back-to-back third-place finishes in Group 2 company. The daughter of legendary miler Frankel won the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte over that 8-furlong trip at Longchamp in April, but has been going longer of late and will cut back in trip Saturday. Trainer Francis-Henri Gifford turns to Keeneland local and fellow countryman Florent Geroux for the mount. Geroux won the QE2 in 2015 with Her Emmynency.
.svg){kind=logo}
