Cherie DeVaux

Trainer Cherie DeVaux achieved Saturday what many trainers work a lifetime to attain when taking Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}). After having a day to digest the watershed moment, she summed up the experience succinctly. "Awesome ... amazing." According to DeVaux, a couple of changes factored in the filly's second Grade I win and DeVaux's first at the Lexington oval. "We expected her to run a good race," DeVaux said. "She was training well... she always trains well. She has...

After a pair of near-misses in graded company this summer, Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) left nothing to chance Saturday at Keeneland, skipping home the easiest of winners in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes. The King's Plate winner Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) broke sharply and went right to the lead in the nine-furlong event, while She Feels Pretty, adding blinkers for this effort, sat just off the pacesetter and in cover along the rail. Caitlinhergrtness was clear through a quarter in :23.45 and a half in...

Montalcino (c, 3, Take Charge Indy--Upstager, by Distorted Humor), a big-figure debut winner at Saratoga Sept. 1, backed up that effort with a 'TDN Rising Star' performance in a first-level allowance for trainer Cherie DeVaux on the opening day of the Keeneland meeting Friday. Favored at even-money while receiving first-time Lasix here, the $410,000 OBS April breezer was hustled to the front from his inside draw and traveled nicely beneath Jose Ortiz while pressed through an opening quarter in :21.61. He began to give them the slip entering the far...

Graded stakes winner Beatbox (Pioneerof the Nile--Magical World, by Distorted Humor), winner of the 2024 GIII Fair Grounds S. and a half-brother to MGISW Guarana (Ghostzapper), has been retired from racing. The 6-year-old will be offered as a stallion prospect at the 2024 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. Consigned by Lane's End as Hip 3083, the dual-surface winner will be available for pre-sale inspection in Barn 6. He enters the auction ring Nov.  12. Bred in Kentucky by Three Chimneys Farm and originally sold for $2.1 million as a Keeneland...

10th-CD, $120K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 5:25 p.m. ET. Bred by Speedway, LADY LIBERTY (Constitution) makes the races for Lael and trainer Cherie DeVaux. The $625,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling buy is out of MGSP Shayjolie (Indian Charlie). A half-sister to MGSW Mythical Power (Conagree), the first-time starter's dam also produced current 3-year-old GSP Jane Austen (Tapit), and a colt by Essential Quality, who Mike Repole took home for $500,000 at this year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale. Drawn for her unveiling, Whitman homebred Jewel Box (Street Sense) is trained by Ian...

Chuck Simon, who retired from training in 2019 after a 20-year run in which he won 359 races, passed away Sunday at Saratoga Hospital after a bout with cancer. He was 57-years-old. Before going out on his own, Simon worked for Wayne Lukas, Pete Ferriola, Nick Zito and Tom Skiffington. His mentors included Allen Jerkens. He spent six years with Jerkens working as one of his assistants. He went out on his own in 1999 and five years later gave a job to a young newcomer to the track, Cherie...

You know how the quote reads directly from the handicapper's Bible, "Behold the pale horse with controlling speed." Heeding that warning arrives once again on Sunday. Halfway through the three-day holiday weekend of Thoroughbred racing, Saratoga and Del Mar card graded races. The Spa's GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes, the penultimate 'Win and You're In' pass to the Breeders' Cup Classic, sets the tone with a myriad of intriguing storylines woven into this fleece as a half dozen entries will try to catch that aforementioned 'pale horse' Arthur's Ride...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- George Krikorian's dependable War Like Goddess (English Channel) will make her age-matching seventh career Saratoga start Saturday in the GII $500,000 Flower Bowl. War Like Goddess has never been worse than third at Saratoga Race Course. The turf distance specialist won the 1 3/8-mile Flower Bowl in 2021, its last year as a Grade I, and was second by a neck in 2022. Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott did not run her in the race last year. The Flower Bowl will be her third start...

For the last several years, Kentucky Downs has been the track that had almost everything. Big fields, huge purses and a betting handle that increases exponentially every year. But one thing has largely been missing--European shippers. Despite an all-turf meet, the purses and the fact that Kentucky Downs is much like a European turf course, the meet hadn't really registered with European horsemen. That has changed. According to Martin Panza, the co-director of racing at Kentucky Downs, which kicks off its annual seven-day meet Thursday, as many as 16 European-based...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--There was a steady stream of people ambling over to trainer Kenny McPeek's barn at the Annex behind the Oklahoma Training Track Friday morning. They all wanted to send good thoughts to him and his 3-year-old filly, Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna), as Saturday's $1.25 million GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course quickly approached. McPeek, standing outside his office with his canine companion Sonny at his side, accepted all the positive vibes. Some lucky ones were even able to secure a pink Thorpedo Anna baseball cap, which were...

Grayosh upset the heavily favored She Feels Pretty to provide trainer Chad Brown with a fourth straight victory in the GII Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga. Backed at odds of 7-1, the rail-drawn Grayosh raced in an inside third behind a pair of longshot leaders through fractions of :24.22 and :49.67. The gray set her sights on the pacesetting Ori (Hard Spun) and was guided off the rail by Flavien Prat in the stretch. With Ori beginning to pack it in, Grayosh raced shoulder to shoulder with last year's aforementioned...

4th-ELP, $71K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 2:21 p.m. ET. PUBLISHER (American Pharoah), a $600,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale grad, debuts for owners Gus King and The Estate of Brereton C. Jones. Trained by Steve Asmussen, the bay colt is the first registered foal out of GSP Indian Pride (Proud Citizen), who is a half-sister to Canadian Horse of the Year Biofuel (Stormin Fever) and Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Tu Endie Wei (Johar). Also to the post is first-time starter--trained by Cherie De Vaux--So Sandy (Omaha Beach), who was initially a 2022...