Australia: It’s a Dundeel earns Breeders' Cup Turf berth

It’s a Dundeel earned a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in November with a victory in Saturday’s $3.67 million Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Randwick in Sydney, Australia.

But a trip to California for the BC Turf was not foremost on the mind of It’s a Dundeel’s majority owner, John Messara of Arrowfield Stud, after the race. He mentioned the Queen Anne Stakes and Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in England in June as possibilities for It’s a Dundeel, stopping short of committing to those races.

“We’ll have a think about it overnight,” he told the press. “I think it’s a bad idea to make raceday decisions.”

Messara said that It’s a Dundeel could be retired to stud without any further starts.

It’s a Dundeel, a 4-year-old New Zealand-bred colt by High Chaparral, won his sixth Group 1 race in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, run over 1 1/4 miles on turf. Ridden by James McDonald for trainer Murray Baker, It’s a Dundeel closed from the middle of the field of 12 to take the lead in the final sixteenth.

It’s a Dundeel (17-5) finished three-quarters of a length in front of 10-1 Sacred Falls, who won the Group 1 Doncaster Mile Handicap at Randwick on April 12.

Carlton House, owned by the Queen of England, finished third. Silent Achiever, the 3-1 favorite, finished fourth.

It’s a Dundeel won the 2013 Australian Derby and the Australian Triple Crown. The Queen Elizabeth Stakes was It’s a Dundeel’s first win since the Group 1 Underwood Stakes last September, a span of four losses.