Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup to have field of only seven

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The connections of just seven 3-year-old fillies have accepted invitations to run Saturday in the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, the sixth and last Grade 1 race at the Keeneland fall meet.

Chad Brown, who has won three of the last four runnings of the QE II and a record four overall, will be represented by the uncoupled pair of McKulick and Gina Romantica.

McKulick figures as a stout favorite with Irad Ortiz Jr. riding from post 6 in the 1 1/8-mile turf race. The British-bred daughter of Frankel has come to hand in her last three starts, 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 invitational races on the grass.

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From the hedge and with riders, this is the field for the 39th QE II:

California Angel, Rafael Bejarano; Gina Romantica, Flavien Prat; She’s Gone, Luis Saez; New Year’s Eve, Tyler Gaffalione; Bellabel, Umberto Rispoli; McKulick, Ortiz; and Paris Peacock, Florent Geroux.

One of the nine fillies who were invited but not entered was Pizza Bianca, the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner for Bobby Flay and trainer Christophe Clement. Pizza Bianca has not raced since finishing eighth in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. Among the others whose owners declined invitations were Cairo Memories, Skims, and Vergara, along with the Brown-trained Dolce Zel.

Brown’s four QE II wins have come with Dayatthespa (2012), Rushing Fall (2018), Cambier Parc (2019), and Shantisara (2021). Last Saturday, the trainer won a record fifth straight running of the Grade 1 First Lady at Keeneland with In Italian.

The QE II is the ninth of 10 Saturday races. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 5:16.

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