After impressive QE II, She Feels Pretty could try American Oaks
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Finally, the connections of She Feels Pretty saw in the afternoon what they had regularly seen in the morning from the 3-year-old filly.
Not that She Feels Pretty hadn’t already hit a high level. She won the Grade 1 Natalma last year at age 2, won a Pimlico Stakes in her first start this year, and finished a close second and third in New York stakes this summer. None of that form approached the performance She Feels Pretty delivered Saturday at Keeneland, when she won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup by six lengths. No 3-year-old filly this year has come close to her winning Beyer Speed Figure, 100, on turf and no filly had ever run a faster QEII than the 1:46.50 it took She Feels Pretty to complete 1 1/8 miles over a very firm, fast-playing course.
“Really validating to see out there on the track what we saw in the morning,” said Cherie DeVaux, who trains She Feels Pretty for Lael Stables. “She’s always trained like she was at that level, to be fair to her. She’s one of the best work horses in the barn. Turf, dirt, she’s there every week.”
DeVaux elected to try blinkers after She Feels Pretty appeared to hang, finishing second to Grayosh in the Aug. 17 Lake Placid Stakes. She Feels Pretty worked in the new equipment and raced Saturday in small-cup blinkers known as “cheaters.” The equipment change and getting a trip with cover under John Velazquez sent her to a peak performance.
“I was a little worried about the blinkers because she can get too keen in the morning. All we wanted was to keep her to task, not change anything else on her,” DeVaux said.
Connections set the QEII as She Feels Pretty’s major goal, but since the filly only has four well-spaced races during 2024, she could start again, perhaps in the Grade 1 American Oaks over 1 1/4 miles on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita. Regardless, DeVaux said plans call for She Feels Pretty to race in 2025 with a Breeders’ Cup race as a long-term target.
DeVaux’s hope for this year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, More Than Looks, came out of his fast-closing second-place finish in the Coolmore Turf Mile on Oct. 5 at Keeneland in good order, DeVaux said.
“He’s back galloping and looks great physically,” DeVaux said.
Saturday, DeVaux sent out Pyrenees, bound for the BC Classic, and Vahva, a major hope for the Filly and Mare Sprint, for an in-company breeze, the pair drilling five furlongs in 59.60.
Cagliostro, an intended runner in the BC Dirt Mile, worked an easier half-mile Saturday, his first breeze since he failed to handle a wet track at Churchill Downs and finished third in the Sept. 21 Ack Ack.
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