Expensive Queen, Segesta dead-heat in Jenny Wiley

Lexington, Ky.

Segesta was clinging to the precarious lead she grabbed just before the three-sixteenths pole. All the while Expensive Queen was threading a needle near the rail in the final sixteenth of a mile. The finish line loomed.

In the end, all three met at the same time.

The top two betting choices battled to a dead heat Saturday, jointly winning the Grade 1, $650,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes for eight older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on firm turf at Keeneland.

“I don’t know. I thought I got beat,” said Flavien Prat, who rode 5-year-old Segesta (3-2) through a stalking second most of the way. “(A dead heat) is always better than being second.”

“It was a little tight, you know, but I thought we got the head bob,” said Luis Sáez, who rode 5-year-old Expensive Queen (5-2) just behind Segesta before making the inside move in mid-stretch. “Hey, a winner is a winner.”

They were not alone hitting the wire. Medoro (7-1), a 5-year-old California shipper for trainer Peter Eurton, finished only three-quarters of a length behind in third. But the climax of Keeneland’s first Grade 1 first-place dead heat since Rosalind and Room Service in the 2014 Ashland was written to the inside.

Aussie Girl (8-1), who would fade to seventh, set the early fractions of 23.10, 47.46 and 1:11.48. Segesta and Expensive Queen lurked second and third around the first turn and up the backstretch.

Segesta, who is trained by Chad Brown, forced the issue going two wide in the second turn. Leading in mid-stretch through a mile in 1:34.87, it briefly looked like she would have to fend off Juan Hernández on Medoro.

“I was following (Segesta),” Hernández said. “My plan was to stay behind the pace. The plan worked out really well. I was following the right filly. Turning for home I swung outside, and my filly gave me a really nice kick at the end. I just couldn’t come by the other horses.”

Expensive Queen, trained by Brendan Walsh, surged forward by going around fading Aussie Girl and then finding an inside seam for her final push to the wire.

“We were kind of a little stuck coming up on (Aussie Girl),” Sáez said. “But we got going a little bit more. I thought we were going to run on by, but (Segesta), she’s a pretty good filly, and she came back.”

Just as they passed the D in the Keeneland infield topiary, Expensive Queen and Segesta were on even terms. Little did they know how even until 4 1/2 minutes after they crossed the finish line at a final time of 1:40.98.

“(Segesta) gave me a good run turning for home,” Prat said. “At that point I thought I was going to open up, but she kind of stayed with the field. Then when she felt (Expensive Queen), she re-engaged herself. It was very good.”

Expensive Queen paid $3.46, $3.84 and $3.06. Segesta returned $2.84, $2.90 and $2.44. Medoro paid $3.94 to show. Then came Dynamic Pricing (5-1), Pin Up Betty (11-1), Fast Market (36-1), Aussie Girl and Deep Satin (16-1) in that order.

Morning-line favorite Lush Lips, who is Expensive Queen’s stablemate, and third program choice Destino d’Oro, trained by Brad Cox, were scratched after their trainers reported minor fitness problems Saturday morning.

Asked how Lush Lips’s absence may have impacted the race for Expensive Queen and the others, Walsh said, “I don’t know if it changed it an awful lot. There was never a ton of speed, and we actually found ourselves maybe a little closer than what we normally had been. But she’s adaptable, and I told Luis that going out. I said you’ll probably find yourself a little closer.”

If anything, Walsh wished the Lope de Vega mare owned by Kip Knelman’s Farfellow Farms did not have to be so far inside.

“She’s a little more comfortable when she comes down the outside,” he said. “Unfortunately today we weren’t able to get the outside position. But she showed a lot of heart. They were down tight on her, and they didn’t make it easy on her. But she fought hard, and she got the job done.”

Segesta, a millionaire daughter of Ghostzapper and a Juddmonte homebred, raced for the first time since she won the Matriarch (G1) on Nov. 30 at Del Mar.

“I’m delighted again for owners always willing to keep horses like this in training,” Juddmonte USA general manager Garrett O’Rourke said. “It’s great for the fans, great for the game, but sometimes you do it, and you’re wrong. So it’s great to actually keep a filly like this in training, and right off the bat it takes the pressure off now. We can enjoy the rest of the year.”

Depending on what Brown ultimately recommends, O’Rourke said races like the Just a Game (G1) in June and the Diana (G1) in July could be in Segesta’s future. So could the 1 3/8-mile Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 7 right back at Keeneland.

“It’s a little bit further distance,” O’Rourke said, “but still it can be part of the plan, and now we know that she really likes the track.”

It very well could be a place where she meets Expensive Queen again.

Most of the connections said they could not remember the last time they were involved in such a high-profile dead heat. Prat was the exception.

“It was for Chad, and it was that good race at Churchill,” he said. “I remember it was on Derby day.”

He was right. Prat rode Domestic Spending in a heater against Colonel Liam in 2021 Turf Classic (G1). Now he has a new memory from an unforgettable race as do all the winning connections.

“When you end up in this (winner’s) circle,” Walsh said, “it’s never too bad.”