Virginia-Bred Queen Caroline Tries the Step Up to Graded Company in Keeneland’s Grade One Queen Elizabeth

Article Courtesy of the Bloodhorse

Canadian Horse of the Year Catch a Glimpse heads a field of nine 3-year-old fillies for the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane’s End (gr. IT) at Keeneland Oct. 15.

Gary Barber, Michael Ambler, and Windways Farm’s sophomore daughter of City Zip   faces a rematch for the fourth time with Time and Motion, who handed her a neck loss in the Aug. 21 Lake Placid (gr. IIT) at Saratoga Race Course last time out.

That defeat snapped an eight-race win streak for Catch a Glimpse, who has won five of six starts this year for trainer Mark Casse. She beat Time and Motion in the 2015 Breeers’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. IT) when that rival wound up fifth, and again in the Belmont Oaks Invitational (gr. IT) when they ran 1-2, with Catch a Glimpse winning by half a length.

Phillips Racing Partnership’s Time and Motion, by Tapit  , won three races between her losses to Catch a Glimpse, then gamely defeated the champ for trainer Jimmy Toner, who has won two previous editions of the QE II. His victories came with Tribulation (1993) and stakes record-holder Memories of Silver (1996).

Catch a Glimpse will have regular rider Florent Geroux in the irons from post 1, while John Velazquez, who has won the race a record three times, has the mount on Time and Motion from post 7.

Several other accomplished runners step forward in the 1 1/8-mile grass test. Larkin Armstrong’s Harmonize comes in off a victory in the Aug. 20 Del Mar Oaks Presented by The Jockey Club (gr. IT), and won the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine (gr. IIIT) at Keeneland last fall. She finished fifth in the Belmont Oaks prior to her Del Mar win for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

Stuart S. Janney III’s On Leave comes in on a four-race win streak, capped by her first stakes score in the Sept. 17 Sands Point (gr. IIT) at Belmont Park. The War Front   filly is trained by Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey.

Shipping from California are grade II winner Mokat, fourth in the Del Mar Oaks last time out, and grade III winner Stays in Vegas, third in that race. German One Thousand Guineas (Ger-I) winner Hawksmoor makes her first start in North America for Lael Stables, while Sept. 11 Dueling Grounds Oaks winner Try Your Luck and Sept. 7 Indiana Grand Stakes winner Queen Caroline step up to grade I company for the first time.