While it did take her three starts to get her diploma, Besilu Stables highly-regarded Crown Queen stamped herself as a potential star on the rise with an impressive maiden win on Saturday at Belmont Park.
Trained by Hall of Fame horseman Bill Mott and ridden to her inaugural victory by Joel Rosario, Crown Queen sat just off of the pace before swinging wide into the stretch to launch her bid. She showed a sharp turn of foot to draw even with the front-running Sylvia T and kicked clear at the sixteenth pole. The three-year-old daughter of Smart Strike completed one mile on the turf in 1:35.51 and won by 2 1/2 lengths. Sent off as the slight second choice at 2-1, she returned $6.20, 4.20 and 3.00.
Crown Queen was making her first start of the year and was last seen finishing third at Belmont Park last October. In that start, she was compromised by some antics in the starting gate and also raced greenly in her debut effort, a third-place finish at Saratoga last summer. She broke cleanly this time and appears to have matured off of the eight-months away from the races.
Sold for $1.6 million as a yearling at the Keeneland November Sales, Crown Queen is a half-sister to three-time Eclipse Award champion Royal Delta. In addition to producing the two-time Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic, the A.P. Indy mare Delta Princess has also thrown graded stakes performers Carnival Court and Empire Way. Bill Mott also campaigned Royal Delta for Besilu Stables.
Royal Ascot is one of the greatest race meets in the world, and there is no race as historic or exciting during the meet than the Gold Cup (G1)! First run in 1807, it is one of the premier races for stayers in the world. The two-and-a-half-mile turf race offers a rich £500,000 purse, and it drew ten of the world’s best long-distance horses.
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes is one of the most important races of the Royal Ascot meeting! With a £1 million purse, the race is one of the richest of the entire week, and it also offers its winner a guaranteed berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
The 2022 Belmont Stakes, which will be run on Saturday, June 11, drew an exciting field of eight to compete for $1.5 million and a place in horse racing immortality. Several familiar New York horses will line up for the race, including Wood Memorial (G2) winner Mo Donegal and Peter Pan (G3) winner We the People.
The best horses in the older dirt male division line up for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup on Saturday, January 29 at Gulfstream Park! The race is at a mile and an eighth on the main track, an intermediate distance that draws both Classic runners and milers alike. Nine horses have passed the entry box, and are ready for a thrilling renewal of the winter’s biggest race!
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