2021 Eclipse Awards: The Mean Queen

The Mean Queen had a wicked race record in 2021.

In eight starts in Ireland and the United States, The Mean Queen won six times, including three consecutive Grade 1 races to finish a campaign that has landed her on the list of finalists for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding steeplechaser of 2021.

The Mean Queen was unbeatable when it counted the most in 2021, massive accomplishments for a then 4-year-old filly by Doyen who began the year in modest races.

The Mean Queen won her second start of 2021 in a maiden race at 2 1/2 miles at Wexford Racecourse in Ireland on April 9 before being sent with trainer Keri Brion’s team to the United States.

The Mean Queen won her first two starts in the United States – an allowance race in Virginia on May 29 and a minor stakes for fillies and mares in Nashville on June 28 – before she unseated jockey Thomas Garner while leading comfortably in the Jonathan Kiser Novices’ Hurdle on July 28 at Saratoga.

The Mean Queen did not lose for the rest of the year.

:: Full list of 2021 Eclipse Awards finalists, including profile stories

Owned by Rod and Alice Moorhead’s Buttonwood Farm, The Mean Queen led a sweep of the trifecta for Brion in the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard Hurdle at 2 3/8 miles on Aug. 18 at Saratoga, a race formerly known as the New York Turf Writers Cup. Garner was back aboard.

“This time last year, she hadn’t even had a run,” Garner told the press after the race. “She was still getting prepped to run in a point-to-point in Ireland. To come here and run in a Grade 1 nine months after her first race is a massive achievement.”

In the autumn, The Mean Queen was brilliant in the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory Hurdle at 2 1/2 miles on Sept. 16 at Belmont Park, beating by two lengths the strongly favored gelding Snap Decision in his first start since June.

The Lonesome Glory was a preview of the Grade 1 Grand National. The Mean Queen and Snap Decision met again, and the encounter did not disappoint. The Mean Queen was second early in the race at 2 5/8 miles, took the lead at the second-to-last obstacle, and fought to the finish to win by a half-length over Snap Decision.

Brion said after the Grand National that The Mean Queen will be considered for the Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle at 2 1/2 miles at Cheltenham Racecourse in the west of England on March 15, a rare American runner at the world’s top event for jump racing.