Defending Champion Blue Prize (ARG) Faces Four Rivals in Sunday’s $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster

By Amy Owens —-

Defending Champion Blue Prize (ARG) Faces Four Rivals
in Sunday’s $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster

LEXINGTON, KY (Oct. 3, 2019) – Merriebelle Stable’s Blue Prize (ARG), who scored her biggest US. victory here last fall in the Juddmonte Spinster (G1), will face four rivals Sunday as she tries to become the fourth horse to win the $500,000 race for fillies and mares in consecutive years.

Run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, the Juddmonte Spinster is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race with the winner getting a fees-paid berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) to be run Nov. 2 at Santa Anita.

One of three stakes Sunday, the Juddmonte Spinster will go as the afternoon’s ninth race with a 5:45 p.m. ET post time. First post Sunday is 1:05 p.m.

Trained by Ignacio Correas IV, Blue Prize has won one of four races in 2019 with the victory coming in her most recent start in the Summer Colony at Saratoga. Joe Bravo, who was aboard for last year’s Juddmonte Spinster victory, has the call Sunday and will break from post position two

The most recent horse to win the Juddmonte Spinster in back-to-back years was Take Charge Lady in 2002-2003.

Among those lining up to face Blue Prize are Grade 1 winners Elate and Dunbar Road.

Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s Elate, trained by two-time Juddmonte Spinster winner Bill Mott, comes into Sunday’s race off a nose defeat to division leader Midnight Bisou in the Personal Ensign (G1) at Saratoga. A two-time Grade 1 winner in her 17-race career, Elate has posted victories in the Delaware Handicap (G2) and Fleur de Lis (G2) this year from five starts.

Jose Ortiz has the mount on Elate and will break from post position five.

Peter Brant’s Dunbar Road, the lone 3-year-old in the field, has won four of five career starts and is coming off a 2¾-length victory in the Alabama (G1). Trained by Chad Brown, Dunbar Road will be ridden by Javier Castellano and break from post position one.

The field for the Juddmonte Spinster, from the rail out with riders and weights, is: Dunbar Road (Castellano, 121 pounds), Blue Prize (ARG) (Bravo, 124), Vexatious (Adam Beschizza, 124), She’s a Julie (Ricardo Santana Jr., 124), Elate (Ortiz, 124).

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NBC will cover four Breeders’ Cup Challenge races on Fall Stars Weekend at Keeneland as part of its 2019 “Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In, presented by America’s Best Racing.”
On Saturday, from 5:30-6:30 p.m., the $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) and $500,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) will air live on NBCSN.
On Sunday, NBC will broadcast the Juddmonte Spinster and Dixiana Bourbon (G3) live from 4:30-6 p.m.

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For more than 80 years, the Keeneland Association has devoted itself to the health and vibrancy of the Thoroughbred industry. The world’s largest Thoroughbred auction house, Keeneland conducts four sales a year, in January, April, September and November, and its sales graduates dominate racing across the globe at every level. In April and October, Keeneland offers some of the highest caliber and richest Thoroughbred racing in the world. Keeneland hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in 2015 and will hold the event again in 2020. Uniquely structured, Keeneland is a privately held company with a not-for-profit mission that returns its earnings to the industry and the community in the form of higher purses and millions of dollars donated in support of horse industry initiatives and charitable contributions for education, research and health and human services throughout Central Kentucky. Keeneland also maintains the Keeneland Library, a world-renowned public research institution with the mission of preserving information about the Thoroughbred industry. To learn more, visit Keeneland.com.