More Than Ready’s millionaire filly Rushing Fall added a second Grade 1 winner to her impeccable resume on Saturday when she went gate-to-wire to win the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) by 1 1/4-lengths.
“The filly’s phenomenal,” said owner Bob Edwards of e Five Racing Thoroughbreds. “We’ve had an unbelievable run with her. It’s all about the team. I had a Hall of Fame rider (Javier Castellano) give a Hall of Fame ride.”
Castellano, who has ridden rushing fall in all seven of her starts, gave the 3-year-old filly another perfect ride. Realizing there was no other speed in the race, Castellano sent Rushing Fall to the front right after the break and never looked back. With slow fractions of :49.22 for the half-mile and 1:14.82 for the six furlongs, Rushing Fall had things all her own way and came home an easy winner by 1 1/4-lengths over Mission Impassible (IRE).
“(She’s) an unbelievable filly picked, the connections (of buyer Mike Ryan and trainer Chad Brown) are phenomenal,” Edwards said. “She’s well-bred. Fred and his team have done a great job breeding horses. Just really happy to be here.”
Bred in Kentucky by Fred W. Hertrich III and John D. Fielding out of the Forestry mare Autumnal, Rushing Fall was a $320,000 purchase at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Sale in 2016. She is 6-1-0 from seven starts, with earnings of $1,308,000.
Rushing Fall won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) and now has five graded stakes wins to her credit. She is More Than Ready’s fourth Grade 1 winner this year, which ties him for the most of any North American sire in 2018.
