Crown Queen regal in QE II Challenge Cup victory

For the second consecutive Saturday, a $1.6 million sales purchase looked the part of their hefty price tag with an impressive Grade 1 win at Keeneland. Last week it was Carpe Diem, today it was Crown Queen who strutted her regal stuff in winning the half-million dollar Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup by three-quarters of a length over Ball Dancing.

After not breaking particularly sharply, Crown Queen was given a picture perfect ride by John Velazquez. The dark bay filly settled into a comfortable stalking position behind the speedy Sea Queen and Minorette on the rain soaked turf course, as the field advanced down the backstretch. Moving to a menacing striking position, Crown Queen gained second on the far turn and was primed to take over from Sea Queen early in the Keeneland stretch.

Her job was far from done when she struck the lead, though, as the other 5-2 shot in the field, Ball Dancing was making up big ground on the outside. It briefly looked like the Chad Brown trained import had the jump on Crown Queen, but the Bill Mott charge had plenty left in her fine-tuned engine. Denying the challenge of her talented foe more with every ground gobbling stride, Crown Queen extended her advantage to the wire.

“It was perfect,’ said the winning rider. “I imagined that she was going to be close right from the gate, but when she didn’t break very good it was a blessing in disguise because I had to get her nice and relaxed going into that first turn. I dropped in and saved some ground and by the time we got to the backstretch I just put her in the clear and let her get her momentum going. From then on, it was all her. She put in a good fight down the lane as well.”

Ball Dancing was much the best of the rest, finishing two lengths clear of the third place finishers. A pair of graded stakes winners in their last respective starts, Personal Diary and Sistas Stroll each rallied to dead heat for third place money.

Owned by Besilu Stables, Crown Queen, is a half-sister to the multiple champion and two-time Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner, Royal Delta. While the three-year-old daughter of Smart Strike has a long way to go to reach the heights of her older sister, who earned more than $4.8 million in her stellar career, she is off to a great start with four consecutive wins this year, including a Grade 2 score in the Lake Placid at Saratoga in her previous start.

“It was a very special win for me since I trained her mother (Delta Princess) and her grandmother (Lyphard’s Delta) and a lot of the family (including her multiple champion half-sister, Royal Delta), remarked Mott. “It’s a very meaningful win for me.”

Final time for the nine furlongs over the soft Keeneland turf was 1:49.98. As the lukewarm 5-2 favorite in the field of seven, Crown Queen returned $7.20 to her happy backers. After finishing third in both of her starts as a juvenile, she raised her lifetime mark to 6-4-2-0.

While her famous older sister made her mark on the dirt, Crown Queen is taking more after their mom, Delta Princess, who was a multiple graded stakes winner on the grass. Each of Crown Queen’s six career starts have come on the lawn, but it should be noted that she has now won on soft turf at Keeneland, firm turf at Saratoga, and good turf at Belmont Park. She also gives every indication of getting better with each start. It looks like the future of America’s female turf division could be in very good hands with this one.