Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (Grade 1)

THE grey filly Harvey’s Lil Goil, part owned by the estate of her breeder Harvey A. Clarke who passed away last year, gave her connections a Grade 1 win to celebrate in winning the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes in Keeneland on Saturday.

She also gave her sire, the 2015 US Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, a first Grade 1 winner when the Bill Mott-trained three-year-old took command entering the straight and quickened clear.

Harvey’s Lil Goil had pressed Sweet Melania through early fractions to six furlongs in 1m 12.16secs.

Though Godolphin’s Micheline cut into her lead in the final furlong, she couldn’t close the gap as Martin Garcia’s mount held on by three quarters of a length in a time of 1m 48.72sec on good turf. American Pharoah’s progeny appear to act well on grass.

Favourite Magic Attitude stayed on for third but lacked the acceleration she had shown in winning the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes last month.

Over a four-furlong shorter distance, Harvey’s Lil Goil and Micheline reversed their placings from the Dueling Grounds Oaks last month at Kentucky Downs when Micheline defeated Harvey’s Lil Goil by a neck over a mile and five furlongs.

“She’s a little superstar. She pretty much goes on any surface for us. At least in my mind, I think the turf probably is a little bit easier for her to handle,” Kenny McCarthy, assistant trainer to Mott, said of the winner.