Moira, Fev Rover pointing toward another showdown in E.P. Taylor

When Moira beat Fev Rover by a head in the Beverly D. Stakes on Sunday at Colonial Downs, it marked the sixth meeting between the mares. Their seventh matchup likely comes Sept. 14 at Woodbine in the Grade 1, $750,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes.

Both horses, according to their respective trainers, emerged from Sunday’s contest in good physical condition, and both will resume training at Woodbine. Moira, who needed the entire homestretch to push past pacesetting Fev Rover as the odds-on Beverly D. favorite, was on a horse trailer Monday headed north from Virginia.

“She handled everything really well,” trainer Kevin Attard said. “The ship went well, she was really comfortable at Colonial, and I was really happy with the way she went into it and came out of it.”

:: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets.

The Beverly D. is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, and Moira’s connections have every intention of using her automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, a race in which 5-year-old Moira finished third last year after a fifth in the 2022 renewal.

Fev Rover led the Beverly D. on a slow pace, but Moira had all the momentum when she came to Fev Rover at the quarter pole, and Moira appeared to be on the way to a comfortable win. But Fev Rover fought tooth and nail, and even with a half-furlong left looked like she might hang on.

“When she loomed up like that, typically Moira, when she has that move, goes right on by. At the sixteenth pole, I was thinking ‘She’s not going to get past.’ It was two good fillies battling down to the wire,” Attard said.

Attard wondered if Moira might have regressed while making her second start of the season following a strong second-place finish last month in the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga in her first outing since November. He said the five weeks from the Beverly D. to the E.P. Taylor and the seven weeks from that race to the Breeders’ Cup offered ideal race-spacing for Moira.

Fev Rover, who won the 2023 Beverly D., rebounded from two subpar showings to start her 6-year-old campaign.

“She showed up. I was extremely happy with the way she ran,” trainer Mark Casse said. “It will be a good rematch with Moira if it works out that way.”

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.