Edited Keeneland Staff Release — Two European-based 3-year-old fillies have won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1). On Saturday, Glen Hill Farm’s Paris Peacock (IRE) will attempt to become the third.
Trained by Jessica Harrington, Paris Peacock arrived at Keeneland Tuesday just before 6 a.m. On Wednesday morning, she jogged and cantered on the all-weather training track with Emma Doyle aboard.
“It is the first time she had shipped out of Ireland,” said Niall “Bubba” Amond, traveling head lad for Harrington’s barn. “She had to go from Dublin to Paris and then to Chicago, where she quarantined before coming here.”
Paris Peacock has compiled a record of 9-2-5-1 with victories coming in her past two races at Gowran Park.
“She just kept running into a tough bunch of horses and the one time she was sixth, she could not get any daylight,” Amond said. “She broke her maiden in a listed race against older and then won the Group 3 against older.”
Paris Peacock is scheduled to go back to the training track Thursday morning. Harrington’s daughter Kate, is to arrive Friday and will represent the barn.
Amond said Paris Peacock will remain at Keeneland after the race.
“We are going back home, but she stays,” Amond said. “I don’t know whose barn she will go to.”
The European-based runners to win the QE2 were Together (IRE) in 2011, who also was a Group 3 winner before taking the QE2, and multiple group winner Ryafan in 1997.
CHAMPION WHITMORE HEADLINES KEENELAND CONNECTIONS
IN THOROUGHBRED MAKEOVER
Popular champion Whitmore, who won the 2017 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2) and 2020 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) at Keeneland, is among the horses with Keeneland connections scheduled to compete during the Oct. 12-15 Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium Presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
The Makeover is the largest Thoroughbred retraining competition in the world for recently retired racehorses. Keeneland is a major sponsor of the competition, which features 10 disciplines, including barrel racing, competitive trail, dressage, jumping, polo, ranch work and freestyle. Horses from all over the country will compete for more than $100,000 in prize money.
Whitmore, a 9-year-old gelding by Pleasantly Perfect, raced for seven years for trainer Ron Moquett. He won 15 races, including seven graded stakes, and made four starts in the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix. Named the 2020 champion male sprinter, Whitmore retired in 2021 with earnings of $4,502,350.
Moquett’s wife, Laura, is riding Whitmore in the competitive trail division at the Makeover.
Other horses with Keeneland connections entered in the Makeover are graded stakes winners Almanaar (GB), Fast Boat and Ghost Hunter.
Almanaar, who won eight races and earned $900,349, captured the 2017 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1) and was eighth in Keeneland’s 2018 Shadwell Turf Mile (G1, now the Coolmore Turf Mile). Trained by Timothy Brock, the 10-year-old son of Dubawi is entered in the ranch work and competitive trail divisions at the Makeover.
Fast Boat, a Keeneland allowance winner in 2019, is to participate in the competitive trail division of the Makeover with former jockey Rosie Napravnik. Her husband, Joe Sharp, trained Fast Boat, who earned $706,349, won graded stakes at Churchill Downs and Saratoga, and ran in Keeneland’s 2020 Shakertown (G2) and Woodford (G2). The 7-year-old gelding is by City Zip.
Winner of the 2017 Arlington Handicap (G3), Ghost Hunter is entered in the show hunter and show jumper divisions with trainer Jessica Silver. The 12-year-old gelding by Ghostzapper was second in a Keeneland allowance race in 2013. He raced for eight years, won 24 races in 69 starts and earned $883,998.
Another Makeover entrant with Keeneland connections is multiple stakes winner Hieronymus, a son of Girolamo who will compete in the competitive trail and ranch work divisions with trainer Isabel Wells. Hieronymus was named for Keeneland’s former Director of Broadcast Services, G.D. Hieronymus, who continues to work here seasonally.
“It’s an honor to have a horse named after you,” Hieronymus said. “He won a couple of nice stakes races and I have some win photos from them. It’s kind of fun to have those as well. It was exciting to see that he’s back in October (for the Makeover).”
For more about the Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium,
