GRADE 1 WINNERS GOZZIP GIRL, MISS WORLD HEADLINE FIELD OF 7 FOR QE II CHALLENGE CUP
Farnsworth Stables’ Gozzip Girl and Waratah Thoroughbreds’ Miss World head a field of seven 3-year-old fillies entered Wednesday for Saturday’s 26th running of the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) to be run at 1 1/8 miles on the Haggin Turf Course.
The Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup will go as the ninth race on Saturday’s 10-race card with a 5:05 p.m. ET post time. First post on Saturday is 1:05 p.m.
A winner of three graded stakes this year highlighted by a Grade 1 score in the American Oaks Invitational, Gozzip Girl will break from post position four and be ridden by Kent Desormeaux. Desormeaux won the 2004 renewal of the race aboard Ticker Tape (GB).
Trained by Tom Albertrani, Gozzip Girl ran second here this spring in the Ashland (G1) on the main track and enters the QE II off a troubled fourth-place finish in the Garden City (G1).
Miss World has won her past three starts and captured the Garden City in her most recent outing. Trained by Christophe Clement, Miss World will be ridden Saturday by Rajiv Maragh and break from post position two.
The field for the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, from the hedge out, is as follows: Hameildaeme (GB) (Alex Solis), Miss World (Rajiv Maragh), Hot Cha Cha (James Graham), Gozzip Girl (Kent Desormeaux), Shared Account (Edgar Prado), Lady Shakespeare (Emma-Jayne Wilson) and Blind Date (Robby Albarado). All starters will carry 121 pounds.
EL BRUJO, NOT FOR SILVER SHARE TOP WEIGHT FOR SATURDAY’S PERRYVILLE
Ted Julio’s Not for Silver and Windways Farm’s El Brujo will carry top weight of 121 pounds each and concede four pounds to five rivals in Saturday’s 11th running of the $150,000 Perryville (Presented by Budweiser Select) for 3-year-olds over the Beard Course of seven furlongs, 184 feet.
Trained by Michael Trombetta, Not for Silver has won two sprint stakes this year highlighted by his victory in the Grade 2 Carry Back at Calder on July 11. Jeremy Rose, who rode Not for Silver to a fourth-place finish in his most recent start in the Maryland Million Sprint Handicap, will be aboard Saturday and break from post position six.
El Brujo enters the Perryville off a victory in the Kentucky Cup Sprint (G3) on September 26 at Turfway Park. Trained by Malcolm Pierce, El Brujo is a two-time sprint stakes winner this year at Woodbine. El Brujo will break from post position one under Robby Albarado, who won the Perryville on National Saint in 1999 and Clock Stopper in 2003.
The Perryville will be run as the seventh race on Saturday with a 4:05 p.m. post time.
The field for the Perryville, from the rail out, is as follows: El Brujo (Robby Albarado, 121 pounds), Keechi Bullet (Kent Desormeaux, 117), Warrior’s Reward (Calvin Borel, 117), Conchacer (James Graham, 117), Evolutionist (Rajiv Maragh, 117), Not for Silver (Jeremy Rose, 121) and His Greatness (Alex Solis, 117).
HOT CHA CHA CARRIES LOCAL HOPES IN QUEEN ELIZABETH II CHALLENGE CUP
Over the years, the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) for 3-year-old fillies has been ruled by horses shipping into Keeneland. The most recent winner who was a regular Keeneland tenant was Wimborne Farm’s La Gueriere in 1991.
Hot Cha Cha, who resides at Keeneland, will try to make a little history of her own and for her trainer Phil Sims when she goes postward in the 1 1/8-mile, $500,000 event over the Haggin Turf Course.
A homebred daughter of Cactus Ridge, Hot Cha Cha is owned by Nelson McMakin.
“I have had horses for him for 20 years,” said Sims, a native Kentuckian who has string of 20 horses stabled in Barn 64.
Hot Cha Cha debuted on December 28 at Turfway Park in a maiden claiming sprint for a $30,000 tag.
“We were just trying to get a race for her,” Sims said of running for a tag. “After that (a wide trip in which she finished fifth), we thought so much of her that we ran her for $50,000 12 days later and she won.”
That was the end of claiming company for Hot Cha Cha, who scored her biggest victory at Turfway by taking the Grade 3 Bourbonette Oaks by six lengths.
Hot Cha Cha transferred her Polytrack form to the grass instantly, debuting in April’s Grade 3 Appalachian at Keeneland.
“She has a turf pedigree,” Sims said of Hot Cha Cha, who is out of a Broad Brush mare. “She just got beat a bob and even looking back at the tape, it is hard to believe she lost.”
Hot Cha Cha enters the QE II off a victory in the Pucker Up (G3) at Arlington Park on September 7.
“She finally had a good trip and I think it was definitely her best race,” said Sims, who never has won a Grade 1 race in a career of more than 25 years. “She had had trouble at Arlington (in the American 1,000 Guineas) and Churchill Downs (in the Grade 3 Regret) and in the Arlington Oaks, the jockey (Fernando Jara) moved too early and she got caught late.”
James Graham, who was aboard for the first time in the Pucker Up, will handle the riding assignment Saturday. Graham was in the saddle Monday morning when Hot Cha Cha worked five furlongs around the “dogs” on the turf course in 1:04.
“Her work was nice and she finished up well in the stretch,” Sims said of the move that concluded with a final quarter-mile of 23 seconds flat.
BARGAIN BUY REAPS HUGE DIVIDENDS FOR CONNECTIONS OF HAMEILDAEME
With steady rain beating down and the temperature dropping into the low 40s on Wednesday morning at Keeneland, trainer Jamie Lloyd could not help but feel he had seen this act before.
“The last time I was here for a race was a couple of years ago for the Ashland (G1),” Lloyd said. The day we get here it was beautiful and on race day it snowed two inches. I was here with Hucking Hot and she dumped the rider in the post parade and ran off and was scratched.”
Paddy Gallagher was the trainer of record for Hucking Hot. Lloyd’s name will be in the program Saturday when he sends out Newmarket Thoroughbred Racing’s Hameildaeme (GB) in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1).
Hamelidaeme was one of five horses Lloyd picked out of a horses in training sale last November in England.
“We paid $10,000 for her,” Lloyd said. “We had a good sale, bought five horses and four have won, including Battle of Hastings (GB).”
Battle of Hastings ran fourth in last Saturday’s Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) here.
Even though Hamelidaeme was winless in eight starts, Lloyd liked what he saw of her.
“She had been in good races and finished second or third five times,” Lloyd said. “Every time, she tried hard. She just got beat by better horses. She is by Storming Home and we thought that she was genuine.”
Getting Hamelidaeme to the races in the United States proved to be a tricky task.
“The second day she went to the track, she dropped the rider, got loose and ran through a fence,” Lloyd said. “We spent the next two months getting her accustomed to the racetrack.”
The wait was worth it as Hamelidaeme has compiled a record of two wins, one second and one third in six starts for earnings of $126,720 this year.
“We didn’t imagine we would have this much success with her,” Lloyd said. “She really has been kind of a tough-luck filly. In the San Clemente (G2), they forgot the buggy whip at the gate and she delayed the start 10 minutes, and she was wide in the Del Mar Oaks (G1).
“In her last start in the Pucker Up (G3), she drew the 12 hole and stayed there all the way in a race that was just a tick off the track record.”
Since the September 7 Pucker Up, Hamelidaeme has had three works at Santa Anita, the best being a 1:14.40 six-furlong move in company on October 6. She had an easy three-furlong move in :39.40 on Monday before shipping to Keeneland on Tuesday.
Alex Solis will take over for Danny Sorenson as Hamelidaeme’s rider on Saturday.
2009 KEENELAND FALL MEET LEADERS
(Stats Through Sunday, October 11)
Current Meet Leading Jockeys
Name Sts 1st 2nd 3rd Purses
Robby Albarado 28 6 3 2 $524,886
Rajiv Maragh 15 5 5 1 $906,468
Julien Leparoux 27 3 3 5 $369,117
Kent Desormeaux 19 3 0 5 $510,708
Jamie Theriot 19 2 3 0 $146,682
James Graham 12 2 2 0 $ 82,028
Nine jockeys are tied with 1 win each.
Current Meet Leading Trainers
Name Sts 1st 2nd 3rd Purses
Ken McPeek 17 3 0 5 $447,418
George Arnold II 5 2 3 0 $202,000
Jonathan Sheppard 6 2 0 2 $219,769
23 trainers are tied with 1 win each.