Queen Azteca takes advantage of conditions in Keeneland allowance

If you believe history repeats itself, then you might want to get a bet down on Queen Azteca in the featured sixth race Thursday at Keeneland.

This past April 17 at Keeneland, Queen Azteca clipped out to an early lead, set a solid pace, and went wire to wire – winning with something to spare – in a third-level, dirt-route allowance restricted to fillies and mares and open to $100,000 claimers.

Thursday, Queen Azteca has a chance to make the lead in a third-level, dirt-route allowance restricted to fillies and mares and open to $100,000 claimers.

Queen Azteca gets to run in the same race because of a second allowance condition Friday, non-winners of two races at one mile or longer during 2026.

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She qualifies for the second allowance condition because Queen Azteca has lost three in a row since her spring score at Keeneland. And where Queen Azteca came into the April race following a solid second in a Colonial Downs stakes, she enters Friday after break of about 10 weeks and following a 10 1/4-length defeat in the Groupie Doll at Ellis Park.

Queen Azteca races on Lasix for the first time since her last win – which might or might not be a key factor. A month after her Keeneland allowance tally, she performed dismally with no obvious excuse in the Allaire duPont Distaff at Laurel Park, though she was much better finishing second in the Iowa Distaff, and, considering her trip, ran respectably in her last start, the Groupie Doll on Aug. 6 at Ellis Park.

“I have no clue what happened in Maryland,” said Rodolphe Brisset, who trains Queen Azteca for Team Valor – at least for now. The filly is entered in a November auction as a racing and broodmare prospect. One theory: Queen Azteca got behind horses in the duPont Distaff and might have resented kickback. “We work her behind other horses all the time and she takes the dirt. She can breeze with a Grade 1 horse in the morning.”

Brisset, though, is skeptical that Queen Azteca makes the lead Thursday under Cristian Torres. He sees stretch-out sprinter Roswell drawn on the rail and figures aggressive rider Luis Saez will try for the front. Queen Azteca, though, could sit a pressing second with no horse in front of her and still run her race. Video of her Oct. 10 work offers strong positive signs.

“She’s doing really, really good,” Brisset said.

If Roswell and Queen Azteca hook up on a strong pace, Take Charge Omaha can take advantage. She also won a dirt route at the Keeneland meet, a second-level allowance, and was freshened through the summer after a second June 20 in the Lady Jacqueline at Thistledown.

Race 6 is the first of three straight allowance races on the card. Race 7, a second-level turf allowance, could easily get rained off onto the main track, while the eighth, for 2-year-olds, is a dirt route open to first-level allowance horses or $100,000 claimers.

Brisset has skepticism here, too. Excellent won a Colonial Downs sprint maiden in his lone start, and Brisset figures he goes off single-digit odds despite being listed at 20-1 on the morning line. Excellent had to weave his way in and out of traffic at Colonial, won going away, and galloped out like a horse looking for more distance. The Daily Racing Form analyst has him picked on top over odds-on morning-line favorite Caribbean Life.

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