Rushing Fall getting set for QEII Challenge Cup

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rushing Fall will return to the scene of her career breakthrough as a solid favorite Saturday in a prospective field of nine 3-year-old turf fillies in the Grade 1, $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

It was last October here in her second race, the Jessamine, that Rushing Fall drew national attention with an eye-catching 3 1/4-length triumph. That race catapulted her to a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar and made her a finalist for a divisional Eclipse Award.

Since then, Rushing Fall has raced three times, all for e Five Racing Thoroughbreds and trainer Chad Brown. The daughter of More Than Ready won the Grade 2 Appalachian here in the spring, then suffered her lone defeat when second in the Grade 3 Edgewood on Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill Downs. She won the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga in her lone interim appearance.

Last Saturday morning at Belmont Park, Rushing Fall had her final pre-race breeze toward the 1 1/8-mile QE II when going five furlongs in 1:00.80 around the dogs over a yielding turf course. She was scheduled to arrive at Keeneland early this week.

“She’s training really well,” Brown said Sunday from New York.

Rushing Fall will not proceed to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, owing to the longer 1 3/8-mile distance of that Nov. 3 race at Churchill. She is one of nine fillies likely for the QE II, the sixth and last Grade 1 race of the 17-day Keeneland fall meet.

In alphabetical order, those expected for the QE II are Beyond Blame, Capla Temptress, Daddy Is a Legend, Fatale Bere, Mission Impassible, Nyaleti, Princess Warrior, Rushing Fall, and Secret Message.

Pollara, also trained by Brown, was a 10th invitee but will not run.

Friday feature a deep one

There’ll be pretty much something for everyone Friday when a full gate loads up for the Grade 3 Franklin County Stakes. Filly-mare turf sprinters from the East, West, and in-between circuits jammed the entry box, and the result is quite possibly the deepest field in the 22-year history of the $100,000 race.

Among the top contenders are Morticia, the 2017 winner for G. Watts Humphrey and trainer Rusty Arnold; Belvoir Bay, winner of the Grade 2 Monrovia in May and arguably the top performer in this niche in California; Ruby Notion, a stakes winner at Saratoga and Kentucky Downs in her last two starts; and Chanteline, who got a 104 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Smart N Fancy at Saratoga last out. In all, 16 are on the program, with only as many as 14 allowed to start.

A cold front is expected to move into the Lexington area late this week, as sunshine and highs of about 60 are forecast for Friday and Saturday.

◗ Tom Leach was back at work Sunday at Keeneland, but he couldn’t have been blamed for begging off.

Leach, the radio play-by-play announcer for University of Kentucky football, was on the team’s charter flight that touched down in Lexington at about 3 a.m. Sunday following a grueling overtime loss Saturday night to Texas A&M in College Station, Tex.

“I was up at 7:30 handicapping the Sunday card,” said Leach, who is teaming with Jesse Ullery most days at the 17-day fall meet on the in-house telecasts at Keeneland. “I’ll catch up on my rest sometime soon, I guess.”

◗ Heart to Heart, winner of the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile here in April, will be freshened ahead of the Gulfstream Park championship meet after fading to ninth Saturday in the Shadwell Mile, said trainer Brian Lynch. Heart to Heart, a 7-year-old horse, has 15 wins and more than $2 million in earnings from 38 starts.