Checkit faces Lacroix challenge

The heavily campaigned Checkit travels from England to Baden-Baden in southwest Germany to challenge six locally trained juveniles in the Group 2 Maurice Lacroix-Trophy on Friday.

Checkit's third-place finish in his seventh start, the Group 2 Richmond Stakes, behind subsequent Group 1 Prix Morny winner Elusive City, makes him the standout in the six-furlong Lacroix. His German rivals are all lightly raced, however, and one of them may improve enough to deny him the prize.

Fiepes Shuffle was sixth in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin but had won his two previous starts at Hamburg and Baden-Baden by a combined 9 1/2 lengths. Easy Way and Fleur were second and third behind Ibisco in a Cologne listed race on Aug. 4, but Action Fighter beat Ibisco two weeks later in an allowance at the same track.

They may all be chasing the improving Lord of Fantasy. A Kentucky-bred son of Spinning World, he was a winner first time out at Krefeld on July 21 for Andreas Lowe and could score at a price.