Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf: Queen's Plate winner Moira getting some buzz
LEXINGTON, Ky. – She’s been something of a buzz horse, this Canadian interloper in a race that typically boils down to the U.S. versus Europe. Maybe that’s what a Queen’s Plate romp will do for a gal.
“I think she’s very talented,” trainer Kevin Attard said of Moira, whose 10-1 morning-line odds ahead of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Saturday at Keeneland might belie an undercurrent of support that seems to have built for her this week. “Against the 3-year-olds in Canada, she’s been dominant, right?”
Well, yes, but that wouldn’t necessarily explain how or why Moira has been something of a popular pre-race selection by various experts in the $2 million BC Filly and Mare Turf – although her track- and stakes-record performance in winning the prestigious Queen’s Plate versus males in August at her Woodbine base doesn’t hurt her case. It’s the trouble-filled runner-up finish in her only subsequent start in the Grade 1 E. P. Taylor over the Woodbine turf that gives her backers a certain degree of assurance that the Ontario-bred daughter of Ghostzapper might also be equally adept on the grass.
Moira, named for a character in the TV comedy series “Schitt’s Creek,” was disqualified to eighth for interference in the E.P. Taylor in her first start versus older rivals, but no worries.
“We gave her a big test in the E.P. Taylor,” said Attard. “Although her number got taken down, I thought she ran very creditably … she handled herself very well.”
The noted bloodstock agent, Donato Lanni, a native Canadian, purchased Moira as a yearling for $150,000 on behalf of his X-Men Racing partnership, Madaket Stables, and SF Racing. Frankie Dettori will be aboard Moira when she breaks from the outside post in a deep lineup of 12 that counts Nashwa and Above the Crowd as favorites for a five-filly European contingent and In Italian for the Americans.
A second Canadian representative in the 1 3/16-mile Filly and Mare Turf is Lady Speightspeare, who will break from the opposite end of the starting gate from post 1 for Luis Saez and trainer Roger Attfield. She’ll be a bigger price than Moira, although her early-going tendency could be a factor in pushing In Italian through faster fractions than what might unfold otherwise.
“If she runs her race, she’ll be competitive,” said Attfield.
This will be the 24th Filly and Mare Turf, which was the first new race added to the Breeders’ Cup when the traditional program was expanded from the “original seven” to eight races in 1999 at Gulfstream Park. It goes as the sixth of 12 races Saturday, with post time set for 1:50 p.m. Eastern.
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