One week after winning six straight races at Santa Anita, riding legend Frankie Dettori put on another master class at Keeneland when guiding Beaute Cachee to a $53.68 upset of the $511,250 Jenny Wiley (G1). Thus trainer Chad Brown extended his domination of this race for turf distaffers, just not with one of the likelier members of his quartet.
Jenny Wiley (G1)
Beaute Cachee was very much a “hidden beauty,” overlooked even among her stablemates, and likely underestimated because she had yet to win at the Group/graded level. But in a race devoid of a confirmed pacesetter, Dettori cleverly opted to go forward from the outside post, and Beaute Cachee’s latent talent was revealed.
Once sold for a scant €1,500 at Arqana’s Autumn Sale of Flat-bred Yearlings, the French-bred mare led throughout to topple Charlie Appleby’s favored English Rose, Didia, and the rest of the Brown cohort.
English Rose, the 1.71-1 choice to give Godolphin a double after Master of the Seas in Friday’s Maker’s Mark Mile (G1), appeared to over-race early. Jockey William Buick accordingly had to get her to switch off, and opted to settle her in the slipstream of Beaute Cachee.
Beaute Cachee therefore had the run of the race already, angling across through an opening quarter in :24.18 on the turf course rated good. No one else advanced as the 25-1 longshot got away with a half in :48.65. When Dettori slowed the tempo to 1:13.85 passing six furlongs, Didia inched closer.
By that point, though, the proverbial damage was done. Beaute Cachee quickened into the stretch and established the decisive advantage. Didia couldn’t pick up as effectively, leaving English Rose as the nearest rival to try to threaten. Yet Beaute Cachee kept finding plenty and held a 1 1/2-length margin at the wire.
Given English Rose’s inexperience, and Appleby’s pre-race comments highlighting the 1 1/8-mile Diana (G1) on July 13 as an ideal objective, the Jenny Wiley is likely to help her move forward. Didia checked in a further 1 3/4 lengths back in third.
Brown’s Surge Capacity ran fairly evenly in fourth. Next came Walkathon; the other two Brown runners, Fluffy Socks and 3.60-1 second choice Gina Romantica, who were up against it with the race shape; fellow closers Star Fortress and Elusive Princess; and 140-1 shot Embrace Me.
Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Louis Lazzinnaro’s Beaute Cachee negotiated 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.90 to register a new career high.
“Yes, I was surprised,” Dettori said of the straightforward wire job. “I thought the 9 horse (Didia) had speed – she won the Pegasus (World Cup Filly & Mare Turf [G2]) in front – but Chad left it to me. She broke well, and I was able to get to the front on my own terms. Nobody pestered me.
“When I got to the quarter pole and let her loose, the only thing on my mind was that she hadn’t run for four months, so I hoped she had the legs to get to the line. But she never stopped. Never any doubt. Obviously she’s trained by a master trainer. I just did what I had to do, and it was pretty easy, to be honest.”
Beaute Cachee had not raced since her better-than-appears third in the Dec. 3 Matriarch (G1) at Del Mar, where she had traffic trouble as an 18-1 outsider.
“She didn’t surprise me that she was able to win,” Brown said after winning his third straight Jenny Wiley, and seventh overall. “She surprised me that she went wire to wire. Leaving the paddock, Frankie said, ‘You know, I plan on being very forward in here.’ I thought about it for a minute, and then I thought, ‘I’m not going to tell him what to do.’
“It’s such an important win to share; I’ve never won a Grade 1 with Frankie, so obviously anything can happen with those magic hands of his.”
Beaute Cachee has compiled a record of 18-4-5-2, $539,454. Although the gray didn’t earn black-type in her homeland, she did progress from the French provinces to the big stage for original trainer Gael Barbedette, who sourced her for that meager $1,800 or so at Arqana. Beaute Cachee wasn’t disgraced in the 2022 Prix de Diane (French Oaks) (G1), placing ninth behind Nashwa in a 17-horse field. Fourth next time in the Prix de Psyche (G3), she wasn’t beaten much by Trevaunance and Mqse de Sevigne.
Imported stateside for her four-year-old season, Beaute Cachee again worked her way from allowance to stakes company in 2023. She scored her breakthrough in the Sept. 2 Violet S. at Monmouth Park, and took second to stablemate Technical Analysis in the Oct. 27 Athenia S., before outperforming her odds in the Matriarch.
Beaute Cachee was bred by Gregor Vischer in France. By the Kendor stallion Literato, she is out of Sign and Seal, a daughter of Hurricane Run and Italian highweight Seraphine.
Giant’s Causeway (G3)
Earlier, Roses for Debra returned triumphant in the $260,713 Giant’s Causeway (G3). Ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) when last seen versus males, the Christophe Clement mare thrived back in her own division here.
Roses for Debra was bet down to 1.76-1 favoritism from a 4-1 morning line, while California shipper Elm Drive, the 7-2 program favorite, drifted up to 7.51-1. Elm Drive stalked in third early, as longshot B G Warrior rattled off splits of :21.28 and :44.29, and pounced at the top of the lane. But Roses for Debra was well placed herself by Irad Ortiz Jr., and once she found top gear, the race was over. The daughter of Liam’s Map drove 1 1/4 lengths clear in 1:02.79 for 5 1/2 furlongs.
Love Reigns speared between foes late for second, a length to the good of Elm Drive. Secret Money closed from well back to round out the superfecta, and B G Warrior faded to fifth in the 12-strong field.
Campaigned by Cheyenne Stable and John O’Meara, Roses for Debra sports a mark of 12-8-1-1, $579,868. The gray first flashed talent for trainer Michelle Brafford over the Presque Isle Downs Tapeta, beating fellow Pennsylvania-breds in the 2022 Malvern Rose S. as part of her winning sequence.
Roses for Debra joined Clement for 2023, switched to turf, and compiled a four-race skein including the Caress (G3) and Smart N Fancy S. at Saratoga. That made her the 3-5 favorite versus males in the Turf Monster (G3), only to find the yielding ground at Parx against her, and she spun her wheels in third. Roses for Debra didn’t do herself justice in the five-furlong Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint either, but the Giant’s Causeway conditions were right for the rejuvenated five-year-old to regain the winning thread.
Bred by Blackstone Farm in the Keystone State, Roses for Debra is a half-sister to stakes winner Rose’s Vision. Their dam, the Bernardini mare Essential Rose, descends from the deep family of Salsabil.
