Ave headed to Japan for Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup

Ave, winner of the Flower Bowl Invitational, is headed to Japan for the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup at Kyoto on Nov. 14, when she will run into the winner of this year’s English and Irish Oaks, Snow Fairy.

Trained by Roger Attfield, Ave is a 4-year-old daughter of Danehill Dancer and a Group 3 winner in Ireland when trained in England by Michael Stoute. Since joining Attfield this winter, she has been placed in Pimlico’s Galorette Handicap, Belmont’s New York Stakes, and Woodbine’s Dance Smartly Stakes, in which she was nosed on the line by Mekong Melody.

After defeating Changing Skies and the Japanese-trained Red Desire in the Flower Bowl, Ave passed on the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, which like the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup is a 1 3/8-mile turf race for females, as her owners, Trevor Harris and Three Chimneys Racing, balked at paying the $180,000 fee required to get her into the BC race. At $2.2 million, the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup is worth $200,000 more than the Filly and Mare Turf.

Ave will depart from Chicago on Wednesday, Nov. 3, and arrive at Japan’s Narita International Airport near Tokyo the next day. She will then spend a week in quarantine at the Japan Racing Association Racing School near Narita before embarking on the seven-hour van ride to Kyoto Racecourse on Nov. 10.

Snow Fairy will be the only other non-Japanese horse in the race. In her most recent start, SWnow Fairy, a daughter of Intikhab trained by Ed Dunlop, finished three lengths second in the 1 1/2-mile, Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf favorite, Midday.