
Vergara victorious in the Ladies Marathon at Kentucky Downs. (Courtney Snow/Past The Wire)
• BC Next Stop For Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Winner Mawj
• Grade 2 Winner Alva Starr Tunes Up For Saturday’s Lexus Raven Run
Keeneland Barn Notes
LEXINGTON, Ky.—Gary Broad’s Vergara and e Five Racing Thoroughbreds’ Transient (GB), who ran 1-2 in the Aristocrat Ladies Marathon (G3) at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 9, headline a field of nine fillies and mares entered Sunday for the 32nd running of the $300,000 Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) to be run at 1½ miles on the grass Sunday, Oct. 22.
Trained by Graham Motion, who has won the Rood & Riddle Dowager three times, Vergara prevailed by three-quarters of a length at Kentucky Downs to earn her first victory of 2023 in four races. Joel Rosario, who was aboard that day, retains the mount and will exit post position 3.
Motion will have a second starter in Team Valor International’s Romagna Mia (GB). A Group 2 winner last year in Italy, Romagna Mia was third in the Beverly D. (G1) in her U.S. debut at Colonial Downs on Aug. 12. John Velazquez has the mount and will exit post 6.
Saffie Joseph Jr. trains Transient, who is three times graded-stakes placed in 2023. Tyler Gaffalione retains the mount and will break from post position 9.
The field for the Rood & Riddle Dowager
1 Henrietta Topham (James Graham, 121 pounds),
2 Viva La Red (Vincent Cheminaud, 121)
3 Vergara (Joel Rosario, 123)
4 Be Up (Luis Saez, 121)
5 Personal Best (Flavien Prat, 123)
6 Romagna Mia (GB) (ohn Velazquez, 121)
7 Loved Reiko (Julien Leparoux, 121)
8 Lovely Princess (Brian Hernandez Jr., 121)
9 Transient (GB) (Tyler Gaffalione, 121)
BC Next Stop For QE II Challenge Cup Winner Mawj (IRE)

Trainer Saeed bin Suroor was traveling Sunday, but his Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana winner Mawj (IRE) was spending a quiet morning grazing outside Barn 11 the day after her front-running half-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile turf race.
Owned and bred by Godolphin, Mawj is headed next to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships with the $2 million FanDuel Mile (G1) against males or the $2 million Maker’s Mark Filly and Mare Turf (G1) going 1¼ miles as her options for Nov. 4.
Her departure date from Keeneland is to be determined. Mawj gave bin Suroor his 500th grade or group victory and his second stakes win at Keeneland. His previous victory came with Hatta Fort (GB) for Godolphin in the 2008 Perryville (G3).
Mawj held off a late bid from Everest Racing’s Lindy (FR) to secure a second consecutive Grade/Group 1 victory following her score in the English One Thousand Guineas in May.
“She ran too good to lose,” trainer Brendan Walsh said of Lindy. “I’ll talk it over with the boys and come up with a plan for her.”
A half-length back of Lindy in third was RyZan Sun Racing and Madaket Stables’ Mission of Joy, who made a run at Mawj in the stretch but was passed late to be denied second.
“She probably will head back to Fair Hill (Training Center in Maryland) on Wednesday,” said Alice Clapham, assistant to trainer Graham Motion. “Everybody was happy with her and she couldn’t have run any better. And now she is Grade 1-placed.”
Elusive Princess (FR), who finished fourth as the second choice in the field of nine, is scheduled to return to Fair Hill on Monday with plans to be determined, according to trainer Arnaud Delacour.
Grade 2 Winner Alva Starr Tunes Up For Saturday’s Lexus Raven Run

Dale Ladner and Brett Brinkman have been down this road before.
Two years ago, they came to Keeneland for the Lexus Raven Run (G2) with a filly they co-bred named Cilla, who had just posted a breakthrough, Grade 2 victory in the Prioress at Saratoga.
This time around, the two are co-breeders on Cilla’s half-sister Alva Starr, who comes in for the Lexus Raven Run off an 8¾-length victory in the Prioress.
“Alva Starr is faster than Cilla,” said Brinkman, who trained both fillies for Ladner. “They are a little bit different in disposition in that Alva Starr can be a little standoffish.”
Cilla was making her 11th career start when she finished third in the Lexus Raven Run. Alva Starr will be making only her sixth when she goes postward Saturday.
“She won her first start last year at Delaware Park, and I brought her here for a stakes and was not happy with how she was doing,” Brinkman said. “So, I scratched her and backed off her, and it has worked out well. You can tell a big difference in her maturity.”
On Sunday morning, Alva Starr put in her final work for the Lexus Raven Run with a half-mile breeze in :49 with Tyler Gaffalione up.
“I was looking for an easy :48 or :49 and let Tyler get a feel for her,” Brinkman said. “Nothing like last week (a 5-furlong breeze in :58.)”
This is not the first time a Gaffalione has ridden for Brinkman.
“Tyler’s dad (Steve) rode for me at Calder when I first got my trainer’s license,” Brinkman said.
Alva Starr’s dam is Sittin At the Bar, who also has produced stakes winners Club Car and Jack the Umpire, the latter of which began his career with Ladner and Brinkman.
“Dale names most of the horses,” Brinkman said. “Jack the Umpire was named after an uncle of his who was a high school baseball umpire.”
And Alva Starr?
“They filmed the movie ‘This Property Is Condemned’ (in 1966) in his hometown of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and the high school kids got to hang out with the actors,” Brinkman said. “Alva Starr’s character was played by Natalie Wood.”
Galloping Out … … … …
Jockey Martin Chuan notched his initial Keeneland victory Saturday afternoon when he guided West Point Thoroughbreds’ Stretch Ride to win the third race for trainer Dale Romans.
Sunday Work Tab >>>
Andrew and Rania Warren’s Raise Cain worked a bullet three-eighths in :35.40 over the main track for trainer Ben Colebrook in preparation for Saturday’s Perryville (L). …
Belladonna Racing, Edward Hudson Jr., West Point Thoroughbreds, Nice Guys Stables and Twin Brook Stables’ Vahva worked a half-mile in :49.40 on the main track for trainer Cherie DeVaux for Saturday’s Lexus Raven Run (G2) …
Miacomet Farm’s Heavenly Sunday worked a half-mile over a turf course labeled as good in :49 for trainer Brad Cox for a possible run in the Bank of America Valley View (G3) on Oct. 27.
Keeneland’s 17-day Fall Meet runs through Saturday, Oct. 28.
Post time for the first race each day is 1 p.m. ET. No racing Mondays and Tuesdays.
Click here to access complimentary Equibase past performances for the season.