She's a Julie meets tough foes in Fleur de Lis

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A week after Breeders’ Cup Challenge Race victories from Mitole in the Met Mile and Midnight Bisou in the Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen aims to add to his group of Breeders’ Cup qualifiers Saturday night at Churchill Downs. He starts Tenfold in the Grade 2, $600,000 Stephen Foster, a Win and You’re In prep for the Classic, and She’s a Julie in the Grade 2, $250,000 Fleur de Lis, a Distaff qualifier.

Both are contenders, though She’s a Julie, racing in the shorter field in the Fleur de Lis and seemingly the controlling speed, is the higher-probability winner. Not that her task is easy. Besides her, there are two other Grade 1 winners in the six-horse lineup – Elate, who took the Grade 1 Alabama and Beldame in 2017, and Blue Prize, winner of the Grade 1 Spinster last fall at Keeneland.

A 4-year-old daughter of Elusive Quality owned by a partnership headed by Whispering Oaks Farm, She’s a Julie won her first Grade 1 in the La Troienne on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs – making a return appearance at Churchill in the Fleur de Lis an attractive option. She is 3 for 5 locally.

What she has not done is win at the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Fleur de Lis, having no experience at the trip after mostly racing in 1 1/16-mile races last year. She did stretch out once to 1 1/4 miles for the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga, determinedly holding the runner-up spot behind runaway winner Eskimo Kisses.

“Her second at a mile and a quarter doesn’t have me scared of a mile and an eighth,” Asmussen said. “Nothing but respect for who she is facing. That will be our biggest obstacle, not the distance.”

With Ricardo Santana Jr. aboard, She’s a Julie shoulders high weight in the Fleur de Lis at 124 pounds, spotting her five rivals four pounds apiece. Along with Blue Prize, she is the 2-1 co-second choice on the morning line, a couple of ticks higher than 8-5 favorite Elate.

Millionaires Elate and Blue Prize, meanwhile, are Grade 1 winners at 1 1/8 miles. Blue Prize also won last year’s Fleur de Lis over this distance, one of three local victories she has from seven starts.

Javier Castellano rides Blue Prize for the first time, replacing Joe Bravo, who rode her to a third-place finish in the La Troienne in her first start since a fourth in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Elate, like Blue Prize, seeks her first win of 2019. She kicked off her year with a second in the Grade 2 Azeri on Marach 16 at Oaklawn and a third there in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom on April 14, both times beaten by Midnight Bisou. Those races came at 1 1/16 miles, shorter than her optimum trip.

Outsiders Skeptic, Go Google Yourself, and Auspicious Babe complete the field for the Fleur de Lis, which is scheduled to go off at 9:12 p.m. Eastern. The race will be televised live on NBCSN as part of the network’s Stephen Foster coverage from 8:30-10 p.m.