Champion Untapable, Central Bank Ashland Winner Lovely Maria
Top Juddmonte Spinster Field
Race features last two Kentucky Oaks winners
LEXINGTON, KY (Oct. 1, 2015) – In a rare matchup of winners of the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Untapable and Brereton Jones’ Lovely Maria were entered Thursday as part of a field of nine fillies and mares for Sunday’s 60th running of the $500,000 Juddmonte Spinster (G1).
Run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, the Juddmonte Spinster is a “Win and You’re In” race for the $2 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) to be run here Oct. 30.
The Juddmonte Spinster is scheduled as the ninth race on Sunday’s 10-race program with a 5:45 p.m. ET post time. First post Sunday is 1:05 p.m.
Trained by Steve Asmussen, Untapable will be making her Keeneland racing debut Sunday. The champion 3-year-old filly of 2014, the daughter of Tapit won four Grade 1 races with the triumph in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff clinching divisional honors.
Her lone victory in five start in 2015 came in the Apple Blossom (G1). In her most recent race, Untapable was third in the Personal Ensign (G1) at Saratoga on Aug. 29.
John Velazquez will have the mount Sunday and break from post position three. Velazquez won the 2012 Juddmonte Spinster on In Lingerie.
Lovely Maria this spring became the first filly since Silverbulletday in 1999 to win the Central Bank Ashland (G1) and Kentucky Oaks. Trained by Larry Jones and ridden by Kerwin Clark from post position one, the daughter of Majesticperfection enters Sunday’s race off a sixth-place finish in the Alabama (G1) at Saratoga on Aug. 22.
On Sunday, Lovely Maria will try to become the fifth filly to add the Juddmonte Spinster to an Ashland victory. That double was accomplished most recently by Emollient in 2013. The others have been Take Charge Lady (2002), Optimistic Gal (1976) and Doubledogdare (1956).
One entrant in the Juddmonte Spinster already has earned a Breeders’ Cup berth. She is G. Watts Humphrey Jr.’s homebred Frivolous, who won the Fleur de Lis (G2), a Win and You’re In race at Churchill Downs.
Trained by Vicki Oliver, Frivolous won the Locust Grove at Churchill Downs by eight lengths on Sept. 12 under Jon Court, who will have the mount Sunday and break from post position nine.
The field for the Juddmonte Spinster with riders and weight from the inside is: Lovely Maria (Clark, 121 pounds), Tiz Windy (Brian Hernandez Jr., 124), Untapable (Velazquez, 124), Got Lucky (Irad Ortiz Jr., 124), Flashy American (Corey Lanerie, 124), Yahilwa (James Graham, 124), Mei Ling (Javier Castellano, 124), Diva’s Diamond (Colby Hernandez, 124) and Frivolous (Court, 124)
