Lady Eli has earned Florida vacation

ARCADIA, Calif. - Lady Eli, dominant winner of Friday’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, came out of her race in good shape and will get a vacation in south Florida before preparing for her 3-year-old campaign, trainer Chad Brown said Saturday.

“She looked good this morning, ate up everything," Brown said. "Cold and tight everywhere. Really pleased with her this morning."

Brown said that Lady Eli would be shipped to Palm Meadows, a training center in south Florida, early this week.

[bc_video_id:340895:] Some of the Grade 1 highlights for the 3-year-old filly turf division include the Belmont Oaks Invitational, a $1 million race expected to be run on July 4, and the Queen Elizabeth II at Keeneland, typically run in October.

“The 3-year-old filly grass races are weighted more to the summer and fall, so for me there’s no rush right now to bring her back,” Brown said Saturday. “We’ll take our time with her.”

The Belmont Oaks is run at 1 1/4 miles, a distance that may or not be too far for Lady Eli.

“Certainly we’d like to stretch her out as far as she’ll go," Brown said. "That race being a mile and a quarter, we’ll have to see. My feeling is she’s so talented she’ll probably be able to do it. It’ll take some time to find out.”

On Saturday, Lady Eli, under Irad Ortiz Jr., shot through a gaping opening along the inside turning for home and galloped to a stylish 2 3/4-length victory over Sunset Glow in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. Her final time of 1:33.41 was 1.38 seconds faster than Hootenanny’s final time for the Juvenile Turf the same day.

Lady Eli earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

The victory completed a 3-for-3 campaign for Lady Eli, which included a dominant victory in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont. Brown believes Lady Eli is deserving of consideration for an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old filly regardless of what happens in Saturday’s $2 million Juvenile Fillies.

“Unless somebody runs remarkable in that race, I believe she’s the best 2-year-old filly in America,” Brown said. “We’ll see what happens today. I know that award is typically given to dirt horses, but I’d argue that she’s the most talented 2-year-old filly in this country. She deserves to be in that conversation.”