Lael Stables' grade 1 winner She Feels Pretty has been made the 5-2 morning-line favorite in a deep field of 10 3-year-old fillies assembled for the $750,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) Oct. 12 at Keeneland.
Winner of the Natalma Stakes (G1T) at Woodbine as a 2-year-old and favored when third, beaten just a half-length, in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T), talent has never been the question for the Karakontie filly who has won half her six career starts and never finished worse than third.
But trainer Cherie DeVaux thinks there still could be more there, and after a pair of losses at less than even-money, DeVaux will add blinkers to She Feels Pretty in Saturday's invitational 1 1/8-mile turf test.
"Her last two races, she seems to be waiting on the other horses," DeVaux said. "She's a horse that works really well in the mornings, and it's hard to come up with a way to resolve that. I'm hoping the blinkers help her worry about her race and not the horses next to her. She has always shown a lot of talent and an immense amount of ability.
"She has done a lot of changing physically. She has filled out, and she's a beautiful big filly now, and that's not what she was like as a 2-year-old. We're trying to get her to take that next jump where she puts her head down and runs through the wire."
Her competition includes the filly who beat her by a neck last time in the Lake Placid Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course—Flanagan Racing's Grayosh. That Yoshida filly is one of two entrants for trainer Chad Brown, who has won this race a record five times including in 2022 with Gina Romantica and the previous year with Shantisara.
Brown's second entrant is Klaravich Stables' Oversubscribed. A stakes winner and never worse than second in four lifetime starts, the British-bred daughter of Too Darn Hot most recently finished second in the Lake George Stakes (G3) at Saratoga. Oversubscribed was hard-held early in the Lake George and rallied through traffic in the lane. She gets a rider switch to Irad Ortiz Jr. Saturday. The filly that got the jump on Oversubscribed and won the Lake George—Resolute Racing's Pounce—is back again, too.
The second and third choices on the morning line come from Europe, and they have strong company lines. Highclere Thoroughbred Racing's Soprano won the Prix de Lieurey (G3) going a mile at Deauville Aug. 15, and most recently finished third, beaten 1 1/2 lengths in the mile Matron Stakes (G1) at Leopardstown. The Matron runner-up was Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Fallen Angel while the winner was four-time group 1 winner Porta Fortuna, who finished second, a head in front of She Feels Pretty, in last year's Breeders' Cup.
Also coming from Europe is The Aga Khan's Candala. Winner of the mile Prix de la Grotte (G3) at Longchamp this spring, the Frankel filly most recently finished third, beaten 2 1/2 lengths, in the Prix Alec Head (G2) at Deauville. The winner, Friendly Soul, returned to beat older in the prestigious Prix de l'Opera (G1) Oct. 6 at Longchamp.
The QEII field also includes WinStar Farm and Sienna Farm's Caitlinhergrtness, an Omaha Beach filly who beat the boys in the King's Plate Stakes, restricted to Canada-breds, last out at Woodbine.
Keeneland, Saturday, October 12, 2024, Race 8Entries: Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. Presented by Dixiana (G1T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Pin Up Betty (KY) Luis Saez 121 Michael J. Maker 20/1 2 2Caitlinhergrtness (ON) Lanfranco Dettori 121 Kevin Attard 12/1 3 3She Feels Pretty (KY) John R. Velazquez 121 Cherie DeVaux 5/2 4 4Waves of Mischief (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 121 Brendan P. Walsh 12/1 5 5Soprano (IRE) Billy Loughnane 121 George Boughey 7/2 6 6Oversubscribed (GB) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 121 Chad C. Brown 6/1 7 7Buchu (KY) Junior Alvarado 121 Philip A. Bauer 15/1 8 8Pounce (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 121 Mark E. Casse 12/1 9 9Grayosh (KY) Flavien Prat 121 Chad C. Brown 8/1 10 10Candala (FR) Florent Geroux 121 Francis - Henri Graffard 9/2
