Jerry Frankel, Ronald Frankel, Steve Laymon and Bradley
Thoroughbreds’
Dayatthespa went to the lead at the break and fended off
all challengers to win the 29th running of the $400,000 Queen Elizabeth
II Challenge Cup (G1) for 3-year-old fillies by two lengths over Centre
Court before a crowd of 28,337 on Saturday afternoon at Keeneland.
Trained by Chad Brown and ridden by Javier Castellano, Dayatthespa
grabbed the lead from post position eight and established a clear margin
by the time the field reached the first turn. Castellano angled her to
the rail and led the field through fractions of :24.52, :49.11 and
1:13.96 while receiving no pressure on the front end.
Leaving the far turn, Better Lucky and Centre Court made runs at
Dayatthespa, but Castellano had more than enough filly left and kicked
clear again. Dayatthespa, a New York-bred daughter of City Zip out of
the Doc’s Leader mare M’Lady Doc, covered the 1 1/8 miles on a firm turf
course in 1:48.99.
The victory was the second in the race for Castellano, who won the
2007 renewal with Bit of Whimsy. It was Brown’s first victory in the
race.
A winner of all five starts in 2012, including the Appalachian (G3)
here in April, Dayatthespa earned $240,000 with the triumph and
increased her earnings to $574,892 with a record of 8-6-1-0.
Sent off as the second choice in the field of eight, Dayatthespa
returned $8.60, $4.40 and $3.60. Centre Court, ridden by Julien
Leparoux, paid $5.80 and $3.60 with Better Lucky, under Shaun
Bridgmohan, finishing a half-length back in third and paying $6.60 to
show.
Samitar (GB) finished a nose back in fourth and was followed in order
by Somali Lemonade, favored Stephanie’s Kitten, Treasured Up and
Tannery (IRE).