Flippant gets serious in Queen Elizabeth II

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Trainer Vicki Oliver couldn’t ask for Flippant to be doing any better. Whether or not the gray Tapit filly is good enough to be a serious factor Saturday when putting her three-race win streak on the line in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, well, that’s a separate matter.

“She’s doing great, training great, breezing really well,” said Oliver. “We’ll just have to see how she matches up with these top fillies.”

Flippant is being tasked with a tall order as one of 10 3-year-old fillies in the $500,000 QE II – slowing the domination of Chad Brown in certain Grade 1 turf stakes at Keeneland. Brown, who last weekend sent out the one-two finishers in Blowout and Regal Glory in the Grade 1 First Lady, will be represented by two of the QE II favorites in Shantisara and Technical Analysis when the 1 1/8-mile turf race is run for the 38th time.

Brown has won two of the last three renewals of the QE II, and three of the last nine, with Dayatthespa (2012), Rushing Fall (2018), and Cambier Parc (2019).

Flippant, bred and owned by Oliver’s father, G. Watts Humphrey Jr., followed a pair of victories over the Ellis Park turf with a big late run in capturing the Aug. 31 Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs in her latest start.

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The QE II is the sixth and last Grade 1 of the 17-day fall meet. It’s the anchor of a 10-race Saturday card for which general admission already has been sold out.

From the hedge, this is the QE II field: Burning Ambition, Technical Analysis, Shantisara, Empress Josephine, Nicest, Queen Goddess, Lady Speightspeare, Flippant, Cloudy Dawn, and Closing Remarks.

With no stakes on the schedule for Sunday, the QE II is the last of three stakes this week.

Terrific Friday undercard

An excellent Friday card includes a pair of $90,000 allowances (races 5 and 7) that serve as the first two legs of a Keeneland Turf Pick 3 that ends with the Grade 3 Franklin County (race 9).

Race 5 is at 5 1/2 furlongs and is restricted to 3-year-olds who have yet to win a graded stakes on the grass. Into the Sunrise, with Joel Rosario riding for Wesley Ward from post 2, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite in a field of seven, with Bob’s Edge (post 4, Adam Beschizza) next at 2-1.

Race 7 is a third-level allowance for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles, and it has considerable depth among its field of 11. Sweet Melania (post 5, John Velazquez), a winner of the Grade 2 Jessamine here two years ago, is a lukewarm 7-2 program choice in a field that also includes Whimsical Muse and Market Rumor as prime contenders.

With a 70 percent chance of rain in the local forecast, bettors are reminded that the $3-minimum Turf Pick 3 will be held as scheduled, regardless of which race or races might be moved to the main track. Rules applying to scratched horses, and to races that are transferred after the bet is under way, are the same as with a regular pick three wager.

◗ Hidden Stash, the 3-year-old colt who was sidelined in late June when having a screw inserted in a cannon bone, is set to return to Oliver’s care at Keeneland in the near future, said the trainer. The Constitution colt has been undergoing rehabilitation at Shantera Farm in nearby Versailles and will ultimately return to racing sometime over the winter in Florida. Hidden Stash was 14th in the May 1 Kentucky Derby in his most recent start.