SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — With so much attention focused on the Kentucky Derby, it’s hard for other divisions of American racing to attract much notice during the first four months of the year. This is especially true for the distaff divisions. Of the 10 G1s run before last weekend, only two (the Beholder Mile and Ashland Stakes) were written for females.
That number doubled Saturday with the running of a pair of G1s for older fillies and mares: the $600,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes on the turf at Keeneland and the $1,250,000 Apple Blossom Handicap on the Oaklawn main track. Both races featured heavy favorites, with Godolphin’s English Rose the 3-2 post-time choice in the Jenny Wiley and Adare Manor sent off at a prohibitive 3-5 in the Apple Blossom.
Not surprisingly, Chad Brown entered multiple horses in the Jenny Wiley, as he has for many G1 turf races for fillies and mares across the past decade. It was also no surprise, given that the four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer has conditioned the winner of this race six times in the past seven years, that he once again ended up in the winner’s circle.
What was a surprise, though, was that his winning horse was the longest shot (at 25-1) of his four entrants, a French import named Beaute Cachee whose biggest win since coming over from France had been in the ungraded Violet Stakes last Sept. Under a masterful ride from Frankie Dettori, the daughter of the obscure Literato made the front from her far outside post, maintaining a 1-2-length advantage for the entire 8 ½ furlongs and cruising under the wire a length-and-a-half ahead of favored English Rose.
In the Apple Blossom, Adare Manor, despite having been upset at odds-on last month in the Beholder Mile, was sent off at 3-5 in a solid field of nine at Keeneland. The five-year-old Uncle Mo mare was bidding to recapture the form that saw her win five straight graded races last year in California before failing to place in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
Juan Hernandez hustled Adare Manor out of the gate, and the favorite took the field through a swift half-mile in: 46.95. The pace slowed on the turn, allowing her rivals to start bunching up behind. Yet Adare Manor cornered well and shot ahead in the upper stretch, widening her advantage and winning by 5 ½ widening lengths.
The victory temporarily placed Adare Manor on top of what recently has been one of racing’s strongest and most competitive divisions, but her biggest challenges lie ahead. Champions Idiomatic (older dirt female) and Pretty Mischievous (three-year-old filly) have yet to race in 2024. So have Alabama winner Randomized and Xigera, a pair of Nyquist fillies who came on strong late last year. The division also includes late-developing Beholder winner Sweet Azteca and major stakes winners Wet Paint and Honor D Lady, both of whom were well beaten by Adare Manor in the Apple Blossom.
Derby Doings
With the 20 qualifying points earned from winning last Saturday’s Lexington Stakes added to the 20 he’d already collected by taking the undegraded John Battaglia Memorial on March 2, Encino moved into the 20th and final spot on the Kentucky Derby qualifying list. When previous qualifier No More Time was withdrawn from consideration after being injured in a workout on Sunday, Encino moved up to no. 19, with Grand Mo the First joining the prospective Derby field at no, 20.
Recent Lexington winners who ran in the Derby include My Boy Jack, fifth-place finisher behind eventual Triple Crown winner Justify in 2018. Four years later, Tawny Port followed up his Lexington win with a seventh-place finish behind Rich Strike in the Derby. Rich Strike famously won the race as an 80.80 longshot. Tawny Port was the second-longest shot in the 2022 Derby field at 80.50 to 1.
