Finishes do not get any tighter than the one in the Jenny Wiley Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland. After 1 1/16 miles of Grade 1 grass racing, Expensive Queen and Segesta hit the finish at precisely the same moment, for a dead heat in the $650,000 Jenny Wiley. Segesta had the easier trip, stalking from second as Aussie Girl set a slow pace, but she was making her first start since Nov. 30. Expensive Queen was making her third start this year, but while she saved ground sitting in the pocket much of the trip, things got dicey in the homestretch, Luis Saez steering his mount around Aussie Girl, then diving to the rail for a final bid. Expensive Queen was doing the better work at the line, but Segesta’s one final push under Flavien Prat salvaged a tie. Chad Brown trains Segesta and now has captured the Jenny Wiley a remarkable eight times – and that after winning his first in just 2015. Brendan Walsh trains Expensive Queen: He won his first Wiley while Expensive Queen won her first graded stakes race of any sort. It was a decent measure of compensation for Walsh’s difficult week. The filly Clicquot was all but eased at a relatively short price last weekend in the Grade 1 Madison Stakes, and Walsh had a horse suffer a serious injury on the Wednesday card. Saturday morning, he had to scratch the Wiley morning-line favorite, Lush Lips, after a blood test revealed something amiss. Expensive Queen had the momentum at the finish, but Walsh figured he’d come out on the wrong side of that photo. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “After the week we’ve had, I was prepared for the worst,” Walsh said. So was Garrette O’Rourke, general manager of Juddmonte US, which bred and owns Segesta. “I saw the replay and I turned around and said, ‘Gosh, I’ll take a dead heat there,’” O’Rourke said. He got one – the fifth graded-stakes dead heat in Keeneland history. Medoro, who looked at the furlong grounds like she might come on the outside and win, got turned back and settled for a good third, three parts of a length behind the two winners. The Brown-trained Dynamic Pricing, also making her season’s debut, made a late run for fourth, finishing a half-length ahead of Pin Up Betty. Destino d’Oro, one of the race’s shorter prices, was an early scratch because of an elevated temperature Friday, trainer Brad Cox said. With little pace signed on, Aussie Girl – making her final start – set sail for the lead and made it comfortably, going 23.10 and 47.70, moderate splits over a firm course. Segesta broke alertly from the far outside gate and came over to save some ground from the No. 2 path going into the first turn. Not much happened down the backstretch and into the far turn, but heading round the bend and going to the three-furlong marker, Prat asked Segesta to draw in on Aussie Girl. His mount obliged, and the race was on. Segesta, ridden aggressively into the homestretch, bested Aussie Girl and opened a lead of about one length, but just as she pushed clear at the eighth pole, Medoro and Expensive Queen began gaining – gaining rapidly enough that a half-furlong out, Segesta looked beat. Prat got very busy and his mount found more, turning away Medoro and just failing to do the same with Expensive Queen. “I was riding her pretty hard and she was giving me a good turn of foot,” Saez said. “I knew it was kind of tight there. I found the rail and I make a huge move – I thought she was going to win, but the other filly is good - she fought back.” Brown on Friday won the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile with Zulu Kingdom, who hadn’t raced since August. Segesta ended his 2025 campaign winning her first Grade 1, in the Matriarch at Santa Anita. Juddmonte elected to bring her back for a 5-year-old season. “Credit to Chad for having her so ready today,” O’Rourke said. The winning time was 1:40.98. Favored Segesta paid $2.84, second choice Expensive Queen $3.46. Segesta is by Ghostzapper out of Antonoe, whom Brown trained to Grade 1 glory during her racing career. Segesta won for the fifth time in 12 starts, improved the second part of last year, and should have a successful campaign ahead of her. Expensive Queen made her first seven starts in England and won but once while racing in lower-level handicap ranks. Sent to Walsh for a 2025 campaign, Expensive Queen scored an eye-catching Keeneland allowance win in her North American debut, then, for a couple legit reasons, failed to show her best in the Grade 1 Gamely last May at Santa Anita. She didn’t run again until January, and came back an even better mare, notching her first stakes win on Feb. 14 in the Albert Stall Memorial at Fair Grounds. Expensive Queen, a 5-year-old daughter of Lope de Vega and the Duke of Marmalade mare Witches Brew, campaigns for Farfellow Farms. Both mares ran too well to lose the Jenny Wiley – and neither did. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.