Well-rested Luster favored in Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup

It is, in one sense, Toronto versus Vancouver on Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky.

Trainer Josie Carroll, born in the Toronto area, saddles morning-line favorite Luster in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup. Grant Forster, who hails from the Vancouver area, sends out morning-line second choice Faithful Departed.

Nine others were entered in the QE II, North America’s most important grass race for 3-year-old fillies, a Grade 1 over 1 1/8 miles offering a $750,000 purse.

Funny – the training roster has a heavy international flavor even beyond Carroll and Forster. Patrick Biancone, who runs longshot Haute Diva, was born in France, as was trainer Leonard Powell, who sends the quietly intriguing Lookin At Diamond from California. Brendan Walsh, born and raised in Ireland, has Turner’s Charm, while Australia native Brian Lynch entered Storm’s Wake.

The others – Chad Brown, with Deep Learning; Kenny McPeek, with Soloist; and Phil Bauer, with Tam Tam – are American by birth. It only sounds like Phil D’Amato, who runs likely pacesetter Kensington Lane, could be Italian. He was born in San Pedro, Calif.

Luster last saw racing action Aug. 16 at Woodbine, where she went off the 1-5 favorite in the $1 million King’s Plate and made that look like a fair price, romping by more than seven lengths. Luster has won 5 of 6 – she’s 3 for 4 on Tapeta, 2 for 2 on turf – her lone defeat a third at 2-5 in the seven-furlong Ruling Angel in May.

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“I knew at the time seven furlongs was not ideal, but I needed a race over the Tapeta and thought she would probably get up in time,” Carroll said.

Luster’s five wins have come by more than 25 combined lengths. She bossed Canadian-foaled rivals in the King’s Plate and the Woodbine Oaks but has three wins, too, in open company – including, as it happens, a first-level turf allowance score over the Keeneland course in April.

“That was just about timing,” said Carroll, who was moving at the time from winter quarters in Florida to her summer base at Woodbine. “In retrospect, I’m really glad we did that.”

John Velazquez rides Luster for the fourth time. He has a mount with positional pace, stamina, and a heart for competition.

“She’s got a really good mind on her,” Carroll said. “She’s easy to handle around the barn. Out on the track, she’s a little more on her toes. She’s really strong-willed and wants to chase every horse she sees.”

Carroll has targeted the QE II since the King’s Plate and brings a fresh horse to Keeneland. Luster, though, did draw inside, and Velazquez will have to work out a trip for a filly more used to racing in the clear than being buried inside.

Faithful Departed had the Dueling Grounds Oaks as a late-summer goal but spiked a little fever about 10 days before that Sept. 9 contest.

“It was an easy pass,” Forster said. “With a regard to this race, I think it’s a blessing in disguise.”

Faithful Departed hasn’t started since Aug. 7, and the respite should have done her good. She’d been on a regular racing pattern since November and had come a long, long way through the course of the year. Forster twice ran her in $50,000 maiden-claimers at Fair Grounds. Faithful Departed finished a badly troubled fourth in the first of them, won the second, and has since become close to a divisional leader.

Faithful Departed split horses and sharply won the Regret over nine furlongs on May 30 and had very tough luck shipping twice to Saratoga over the summer. In the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks, Faithful Departed broke flat-footed and found herself boxed along the rail going around the far turn, unable to shake free in time to run down Kensington Lane, who had gotten loose on an easy lead. In the Saratoga Oaks on Aug. 7, Faithful Departed swooped with a powerful wide move from the five-sixteenths pole – a grand rush that propelled her to the lead but might have come slightly too soon. Kentucky Belle, who would go on to win the Dueling Grounds Oaks, pipped her on the wire.

“She’s really been surging in her training toward this race,” said Forster, who will give a leg up to Jose Ortiz.

Kensington Lane won in New York for trainer Donnacha O’Brien, who had handled the filly through her eight starts in Ireland. She moved west into D’Amato’s barn in July, set the pace Aug. 22 in the Del Mar Oaks, but could not last, run down by Tam Tam and Lookin At Diamond.

Tam Tam flattened a bit late when third to Faithful Departed making her first start at a distance as long as 1 1/8 miles in the Regret, then came back with a peak performance going one mile in the Tepin Stakes. She did get an ideal trip tracking a moderate pace at Del Mar but saw out the 1 1/8 miles there.

“I think she’s capable at the distance, but I think it’s yet to be determined what her best distance is,” Bauer said. “Visually, the Tepin might have been a more impressive race. I think the issue in the Regret is we were getting in her way.”

Jockey Junior Alvarado took a lighter hold in the Tepin and the Del Mar Oaks, and Tam Tam responded.

“She puts a lot into her daily gallops, so we’ve spaced her breezes. We’re expecting her to bring her best the way she’s been training,” Bauer said.

Lookin At Diamond got an awkward ride even when winning a Santa Anita maiden by three lengths, and the less said about her trip June 6 in the Honeymoon Stakes, the better. She came back from a 10-week break as a 40-1 shot in the Del Mar Oaks, fell too far behind the pokey pace, but finished fastest for second, getting her last furlong in 11.10 seconds.

Haute Diva and Turner’s Charm would need vast improvement to come close to winning, the French raider Braida even more so. Storm’s Wake has raced consistently all year, and Deep Learning is one form leap away from contention.

All that said, the QE II should come down to the Canadians.

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