Brown targets Queen Elizabeth Cup with Aspray, Surge Capacity
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Chad Brown could have three of his four starters from Saturday’s Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes in the Grade 1, $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 14. Brown has won four of the last five runnings of that race and five overall.
Aspray and Surge Capacity, the one-two Lake Placid finishers, will move on to the QE II at 1 1/8 miles. Aspray was a perfect-trip, two-length winner of the Lake Placid, running 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.85 and earning a career-best 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
Aspray added the Lake Placid to a victory earlier this year in the Hilltop Stakes at Pimlico, another race in which she displayed a strong turn of foot.
Surge Capacity won the Grade 3 Lake George earlier this meet, and held second place over Soviet Excess in the Lake Placid.
Brown said he will also strongly consider Prerequisite for the QE II despite her fifth-place finish in the Lake Placid.
“I don’t know what happened, she didn’t handle the turf course,” Brown said. “I’m going to draw a line through that, she’s pretty good. It’s not out of the question she goes for the Queen Elizabeth.”
Brown said Tax Implications, who finished fourth in the Lake Placid, would likely run in races up to a mile.
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