Quick-Returning Empress Josephine Tops Keeneland's QEII

Having shipped Empress Josephine  across the Atlantic to run during the fall meet at Keeneland, Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien and the lads from Coolmore aren't content with just one grade 1 tilt from her at the meet. They've opted for two.

The 3-year-old Galileo  filly, third Oct. 9 in the First Lady Stakes Presented by UK HealthCare (G1T), wheels back Oct. 16 for another spin around the Keeneland turf when she heads a field of 10 in the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Dixiana (G1T). Though the venue is the same, the conditions are not. After battling older mares in the one mile First Lady, she races 1 1/8 miles in the QEII—one of the most prestigious turf races for sophomore fillies on the North American racing calendar.

It is a feat that O'Brien and Coolmore-associated owners have pulled off before. Ten years ago, Together  triumphed in the QEII after a second for them in the First Lady a week earlier.

Though Empress Josephine's foes this Saturday are younger than what she faced last Saturday, the competition isn't a whole lot easier. Seven of her nine rivals are stakes winners, including Technical Analysis  and Shantisara , and five of them—Burning Ambition , Technical Analysis, Shantisara, Flippant , and Cloudy Dawn  notched black-type victories in their most recent outings.

Empress Josephine, who races for the Coolmore-affiliated Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, is already established at the top-level against her age group, having taken the Tattersalls Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) earlier this year at the Curragh. Then, after going unplaced in three starts overseas, she rebounded to the hit the board in the First Lady, a close loss to the Chad Brown-trained duo of Blowout  and Regal Glory .

Empress Josephine—a full sister to seven-time group 1 winner Minding , out of the Danehill Dancer  mare Lillie Langtry —again must deal with another Brown-trained pair, specifically Technical Analysis and Shantisara.

Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez returns aboard Empress Josephine, who races with blinkers for the first time in her ninth start.

Brown, a three-time winner of the QEII, has his runners in top form. Both Klaravich Stables' Technical Analysis and Michael Dubb, Madaket Stables, and Robert LaPenta's Shantisara are riding two-race win streaks. Technical Analysis took the Lake George Stakes (G3T) and Lake Placid Stakes (G2T), both at Saratoga Race Course, while Shantisara traveled to Arlington International Racecourse to capture the Pucker Up Stakes (G3T) before adding the $671,000 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational Stakes at Belmont Park.

As usual, the QEII has some foreign flavor, even beyond Empress Josephine. Nicest  and Cloudy Dawn raced in Europe this summer.

James Wigan's Cloudy Dawn scored by a half-length last out in the Prix de Lieurey (G3) at Deauville. The Kodiac  filly took a leg-stretching three-furlong spin over the Keeneland turf Wednesday in :40 4/5 upon arriving Oct. 10 following two days in quarantine at Churchill Downs after arriving from France.

"She traveled well and has taken to everything nicely," said Suraj Bissessur, traveling head lad for William Haggas. "Prior to today, she has been on the main track and the training track."

Five of the 10 participants were bred in Ireland, one in California, and four in Kentucky, including G. Watts Humphrey Jr.'s homebred Flippant. The latter has won three in a row on turf for trainer Vicki Oliver, topped by the Woodford Reserve Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs Aug. 31.

"Being a Tapit  , we thought dirt for her," Oliver said. "It was almost by default that she wound up on the grass here in April, and she ran so good on it (a runner-up finish) that we left her there."

Though her dam, the Empire Maker  mare Frivolous , was a winner on turf for Oliver and Humphrey, her stakes victories came on dirt at Churchill in the Falls City Handicap (G2), Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2), and Locust Grove Stakes.

Her first foal to race, Never Forget  (War Front  ), is a winner on turf and dirt and ran third in the Eight Belles Stakes Presented by Twinspires.com (G2) at Churchill. Now Flippant's connections have their eye on a rich prize at Keeneland, where Oliver stables her horses for most of the year.

"This is a race I have always wanted to win, and I hope she is the one," Oliver said.

The QEII, the lone grade 1 flat race in North America this weekend, is the eighth race Saturday. It's scheduled for 4:44 p.m. ET.