Keeneland: Mawj holds off Lindy to win QEII Challenge Cup

Lexington, Ky.

There is something about the way Mawj has won her top-level races. Get the early lead and then make it look thrilling at the end.

That was what she did in May to win the 1,000 Guineas in England. That was what she did Saturday to win the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup for 3-year-old fillies on the turf at Keeneland, the last Grade 1 flat race in the U.S. before the Breeders’ Cup.

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“She’s a tough filly,” trainer Saeed bin Suroor said after Mawj held off deep-closing Lindy for a half-length victory on a damp, windy, 59-degree afternoon.

“Very unlucky,” Lindy’s trainer Brendan Walsh said. “She was coming with every stride. Another 20 yards, we feel we would have got there.”

The end looked a bit like the Guineas, where Mawj held off Tahiyra by, what else, a half-length. Tahiyra had not lost before that and has not lost since. Mawj had not raced since, getting time off before this race and then the Breeders’ Cup.

“This was the first race for her since May,” said bin Suroor, who became a 500-time group- and graded-stakes winner with Saturday’s victory. “Five months. But she was traveling good to the U.S. I was really pleased with her today. Oisín, he knows her well. I said just, ‘You have to be there (on the lead) the same way that you ride her in the Guineas. She was leading all the way, and she won well.”

Not only was it Mawj’s first start since the biggest triumph of her young career, it also marked her first time going around two turns and her first time racing longer than a mile.

“She felt brilliant. She felt back to her best,” said Oisín Murphy, who is 2-for-2 on Mawj, having ridden her in her last two races.

Taking late money, Mawj was bet down to the 6-5 favorite against a field of 3-year-old fillies that was left with nine starters after four morning scratches. Except for the 70-foot run-up in the 1 1/8-mile race on the good turf, Mawj led at every call, establishing fractions of 23.26, 47.72, 1:11.89 and 1:35.64.

The Godolphin homebred daughter of Australia stallion Exceed And Excel opened a two-length lead with a furlong to go. At that point Lindy (5-1) was on the move, going from seventh to fourth and making up ground with every stride.

“She traveled really well throughout,” Lindy’s jockey Tyler Gaffalione said. “She gave me a big run down the lane. Just didn’t get there in time.”

Against a headwind of 17-24 mph, Mawj held on and won with a time of 1:48.06, the fastest for this race since Film Maker’s 1:47.82 in 2003.

“We did quite quick sections in the first half of the race,” said Murphy, who flew to Kentucky from England by way of Boston. “But she is a superstar filly. She found plenty. She’s got a great heart and mind. I’m delighted to win.”

Runner-up Lindy finished a half-length ahead of third-place stalker Mission of Joy (25-1) with Elusive Princess (5-2), who also chased the pace, coming home another 1 1/2 lengths back in fourth. Sounds of Heaven (9-1), Liguria (23-1), Elounda Queen (25-1), Papilio (11-1) and Freydis the Red (28-1) finished fifth through ninth in that order. Be Your Best, Safeen, Prerequisite and Heavenly Sunday were scratched.

Mawj paid $4.62, $3.14 and $2.74; Lindy $5.30 and $3.64; and Mission of Joy $8.76.

Owned by Paris-based Ghislain Bozo under the name Everest Racing, Lindy was a three-time winner in France before she won her U.S. debut last month in an allowance race at Kentucky Downs. As for the Breeders’ Cup, Walsh said, “Let’s see,” and Gaffalione said, “I think we’d have a really nice filly for next year.”

Mawj, however, is a different story. Even though the QEII was not an automatic qualifier, there is no doubt her two top-level wins will get her on the track at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. The question is whether she will face the boys in the Mile or stretch to 1 1/4 miles in the Filly & Mare Turf.

“I know she stayed the nine furlongs,” said bin Suroor, who added Mawj probably would be declared for both races before the Oct. 23 pre-entry deadline. “We’ll have a decision a few days before.”