Sunday, October 17, 2010

Harmonious at Keeneland for the QE II

Marty, Pam, and Emily Wygod’s Harmonious shipped in to Keeneland from her base of Hollywood Park in California to run in the Grade 1, Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes for three-year-old fillies on Saturday, October 16.

These are some (of many, many) photos from the days preceding the race and of raceday itself. Click on the pictures for a better look.

Schooling with Frank between the races on Thursday:



Pre-gallop entertainment at the barn on Friday morning:


Walking before heading out to the track:


Four other QE II fillies were in the same barn or directly across, including Evening Jewel and Zagora (Fr), who finished third and second, respectively, seen here cooling out after their morning exercise on Friday:


Harmonious in the paddock on the way to the track...under her regular rider Frankie, she couldn’t wait to go out:




Back at the barn, posing for the camera:


The crowd-pleasing daughter of Dynaformer paused to nibble on the hedge during her Friday afternoon schooling session:




Saturday A.M., she was walked in the paddock by Frank and Frankie under the eye of her trainer, John Shirreffs:


And here she is getting kitted up at the barn right before race time:



Entering the paddock and getting saddled:



John doing his thing, signing autographs before the start:


And Harmonious is an impressive winner under jockey Joel Rosario:


Crossing over to the grass course for the win photo and trophy presentation:




At the test barn:



And finally back to her barn:




...where this awaited her:

5 comments:

  1. Don't usually get a chance to see this type of spotlight on a G1 winner all the way through, with the details you provide. Great stuff, Frances.

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  2. Great coverage! This is one very impressive mare. More trainers should add Guinness to their feeding programs!

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  3. A most harmonious presentation of news with views!

    Nice.

    Frank

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  4. It was a wonderful week -- got 1,137 pictures (after deleting the unusable ones) of Harmonious -- crazy stuff! I was so fortunate to get to tag along and would have had a great experience even if she hadn't done well, so that she won was amazing and it made having all those photos more fun. Love the Shirreffs team and happy for each of their successes.

    Susan: Zenyatta, Harmonious et al would definitely recommend the Guinness diet!

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  5. Awesome post FJK! She looks like a stunning type and she made her win look gallantly effortless! Oh and watched her Guinness treat video again - adorable!

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