Outfitted with blinkers for the primary time, She Feels Fairly responded to the gear change with a dominant victory within the $750,000 Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Problem Cup introduced by Dixiana on Oct. 12 at Keeneland.
She Feels Fairly had struggled to piece collectively her finest kind throughout her sophomore marketing campaign following a Grade 1 win in the 2023 Johnnie Walker Natalma Stakes at Woodbine and a gallant third-place end in final fall’s NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies as a 2-year-old. There was an emphatic rating in Pimlico‘s Hilltop Stakes in opposition to overmatched rivals to start her season, however from there She Feels Fairly suffered two straight losses when leaping again into graded competitors.
Main as much as the QEII Cup, coach Cherie DeVaux famous She Feels Fairly was hanging within the stretch in each of her prior outings, ready on her competitors fairly than passing them, which finally led to the choice to run the filly in blinkers.
With a robust pair of European runners partaking on this 12 months’s QEII, She Feels Fairly would wish to present her finest effort to take the crown for Keeneland-based DeVaux.
She responded with the efficiency of her profession.
At the beginning, Canadian invader Caitlininhergrtness, conqueror of males in Woodbine’s $1 million King’s Plate Stakes, set an early tempo of :23.45 and :47.79 as She Feels Fairly tucked comfortably and patiently into third place for a lot of the 1 1/8-mile journey for normal pilot John Velazquez. After six furlongs in 1:11.94, Caitlininhergrtness was no match for She Feels Fairly, who angled into the clear and exploded down the lane.
“The blinkers labored very well along with her at the moment,” stated Velazquez. “The duvet-up works along with her too. When she’s coated up and also you angle her out, she passes horses. Right now she was coated up and once I pulled her out, she was able to go. I made certain I saved her first rate down the lane simply in case a kind of European horses come operating.”
The Europeans by no means got here shut. Second-choice Soprano received up for a distant second however was 6 lengths behind the winner. Caitlininhergrtness was a neck again in third, who was one other head in entrance of 27-1 shot Pin Up Betty in fourth.
Scorching by way of a closing eighth of a mile in :11 3/5 seconds, She Feels Fairly established a brand new file margin of victory in her QEII tour de drive. Guess all the way down to 3-2 odds because the post-time favourite, she clocked the gap in 1:46.50 over a agency turf course advert paid $5.08 to win.
She Feels Fairly, who gave DeVaux the primary Grade 1 win of her coaching profession final 12 months within the Natalma Stakes improved her earnings to $948,317 along with her second top-level rating.
“When you have got a filly of this stage, she places it on the market each time,” DeVaux stated.
