Crown Queen an up-and-comer in Lake Placid

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Crown Queen certainly had the pedigree to be a stakes horse. The question was: On which surface would she excel?

It became obvious to trainer Bill Mott right away that Crown Queen would take more after her mother, Delta Princess – a three-time graded stakes winner on turf – than her half-sister Royal Delta, a two-time champion and 10-time stakes winner on dirt.

On Saturday, Crown Queen will seek her third consecutive victory and her first in a stakes when she runs in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lake Placid Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf. Only five were entered for the turf in the 1 1/8-mile race. My Miss Sophia was entered for the main track only.

Mott noted that Crown Queen is a different physical type than her sister and mother.

“This filly’s a light-made, narrow-bodied, totally different type of an individual,” said Mott, who trained both Royal Delta and Delta Princess. “Royal Delta, she wasn’t an amazon, but she was big and stout and had big hind-end quarters on her. I mean, she had a hip on her that was conducive to the dirt. This filly’s got a beautiful shoulder, got good angles, but doesn’t have the hind end to propel herself through the dirt.”

Crown Queen ran twice at age 2, finishing third in a pair of maiden turf races. She needed surgery to remove an ankle chip and has returned to win both of her starts this year, a maiden race at Belmont and an allowance race here in which she showed an eye-catching turn of foot under Joel Rosario.

“It was visually pretty impressive,” Mott said. “I had people commenting on it for two days afterwards. Just the burst of speed she showed when he tipped her out and made his run. That being said, we’re stepping up in company pretty good.”

Rosario is in Chicago on Saturday, and John Velazquez will ride Crown Queen in the Lake Placid.

Crown Queen’s opponents Saturday are Minorette, the winner of the Belmont Oaks; Xcellence, fourth in the Belmont Oaks; Duff One, sixth in the Lake George; and V V Goodnight, a supplemental nominee who most recently finished fourth in a second-level allowance at Arlington.

Due to the short field, the Lake Placid will go as race 3.