New Year's Eve looks to bounce back in Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup

LEXINGTON, Ky. – When the filly New Year’s Eve exploded to victory in the Edgewood Stakes on Kentucky Oaks Day, the sky seemed the limit for her.

Five months and three races later, however, and New Year’s Eve has yet to pop any more champagne bottles. Trainer Brendan Walsh is hoping that will change Saturday when the daughter of Kitten’s Joy faces six other 3-year-old fillies – most notably a familiar rival in McKulick – in the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup going 1 1/8 miles on the Keeneland turf.

“She hasn’t won since Oaks Day, but she’s run well,” Walsh said. “She’s trained well lately, and a mile and an eighth should be right up her street, so we’re expecting her to run a good one.”

McKulick, with Irad Ortiz Jr. riding from post 6, figures as a clear-cut favorite in the 39th QE II, the sixth and last Grade 1 race of the Keeneland fall meet. After runner-up finishes behind New Year’s Eve in the Edgewood on May 6 and the since-sidelined Walkathon in the Regret on June 4 at Churchill Downs to start her season, McKulick has established herself as the division leader in her last three races.

McKulick, a British-bred daughter of Frankel, really has come to hand for trainer Chad Brown, winning the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks, finishing second in the Grade 3 Saratoga Oaks, and winning the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks, all of them invitationals on the grass.

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McKulick and her stablemate Gina Romantica (post 2, Flavien Prat) will be bidding to extend Brown’s dominance in this race. The 43-year-old trainer has won three of the last four runnings of the QE II, and a record four overall.

New Year’s Eve (post 4, Tyler Gaffalione) is the top candidate to put the Brown record on pause. She didn’t fire when eighth in the 1 1/4-mile Belmont Oaks, which Walsh said “you have to put a line through” because of the longer distance and a too-firm surface, and then she was beaten only a neck by McKulick when third in the 1 3/16-mile Saratoga Oaks.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot between the two of them,” Walsh said.

A fourth-place finish as the favorite last month in the Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs for New Year’s Eve seemed a result of her “not caring too much for that surface,” Walsh said.

As for other QE II contenders, the Irish-bred Bellabel (post 5, Umberto Rispoli) ships in from Southern California off three solid stakes efforts for Phil D’Amato, including a victory in the Grade 2 San Clemente in July on the Del Mar turf.

Paris Peacock (post 7, Florent Geroux) will try to become just the third European-based filly to win the QE II – following Ryafan (1997) and Together (2011) – after shipping here early Tuesday from Ireland. Although owned by the Glen Hill Farm of Craig Bernick of Ocala, Fla., the Irish-bred is trained overseas by Jessica Harrington.

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California Angel (post 1, Rafael Bejarano), a 17-1 winner of the Grade 2 Jessamine here last fall for George Leonard, will be among the longer prices in here, along with She’s Gone (post 3, Luis Saez).

This will be the first renewal of the QE II since Queen Elizabeth II died Sept. 8 in Scotland at age 96. Her visit to Keeneland on Oct. 11, 1984, for the inaugural running of the race named in her honor remains one of the proudest moments in track history. Keeneland announced earlier this week that six cherry trees – three on each side of the infield toteboard – have been planted as living legacies to the queen’s Green Canopy initiative.

The QE II is the ninth of 10 Saturday races. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 5:16. Two allowances are on the undercard, including a $140,000 turf route (race 5) that drew In Love, winner of the Grade 1 Keeneland Turf Mile last fall.

All listed purses include bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.

Mostly sunny skies and a high of 72 are in the local forecast for Saturday. Many ontrack fans will be leaving late in the card for the Mississippi State-Kentucky college football game that kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at nearby Kroger Field.

Aiming for an even dozen

Beverly Park, the winningest horse in North America this year with 11 victories from 23 starts, was scratched from a Thursday race at Keeneland to run instead in the last race Saturday, a $61,000 starter allowance at six furlongs.

“No, I wasn’t going to try to run in both of them,” laughed Norman Cash, owner and trainer of the 5-year-old horse. “I just thought the Saturday race was a little better spot for us.”

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