DQ gives Vexatious victory in Dowager Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Vexatious was “kissed in” as the winner Sunday in the Grade 3, $125,000 Dowager Stakes after the Keeneland stewards ruled the first-place finisher, Beach Flower, was guilty of fouling an opponent during the stretch run.

The disqualification made for an all-Calumet Farm exacta, as English Affair was elevated from third to second on the ruling.

Beach Flower, an 8-1 shot, led from the start before finishing a neck ahead of Vexatious, but after Brian Hernandez Jr., the rider of third-finisher English Affair, lodged an objection, the stewards ruled Beach Flower had impeded English Affair by crowding her along the temporary inner rail with about 100 yards to go in the 1 1/2-mile turf race.

“It’s not the best way to win a race, on a DQ,” Vexatious trainer Neil Drysdale said with a smile, “but we’re going to have to take it.”

For Vexatious, a 4-year-old filly by Giant’s Causeway, the Dowager was her first graded victory and her third overall from 13 starts. She returned $10.60 as the co-second choice in a field of nine fillies and mares, with a winning time of 2:32.40 over firm going.

Before an ontrack crowd of 13,836, Beach Flower and jockey Chris Landeros held an open lead in the 27th Dowager almost from the opening bell, with Vexatious and jockey Florent Geroux among her closest pursuers.

Geroux “had the filly in a perfect position the whole way,” Drysdale said.

Down the stretch, as the Calumet black-and-gold silks closed in – English Affair from the rail and Vexatious along the outside – Beach Flower beat them to the wire, only to lose in the stewards’ stand. Res Ipsa, the 7-2 favorite, was fourth.

The $2 exacta (10-2) paid $79.60, the $1 trifecta (10-2-7) returned $417.90, and the 10-cent superfecta (10-2-7-8) was worth $182.94.

The final four-day stretch of the 17-day Keeneland fall meet starts Wednesday and ends Saturday with the lone remaining stakes the Grade 2 Fayette. Churchill Downs opens its fall meet Oct. 28.