Mawj (IRE) Brings Bin Suroor Back to Keeneland
At 12h19, on October 12, 2023 • By KEENELAND
Trainer Saeed bin Suroor has not started a horse at Keeneland since Shuruq finished sixth in the 2014 Juddmonte Spinster (G1).
That will change Saturday when he saddles Godolphin’s Mawj (IRE) for the 40th running of the $600,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana for 3-year-old fillies to be contested over a mile and an eighth over the turf.
“You have to send the right horse to run here,” bin Suroor said Wednesday morning after watching Mawj train on the main track.
In Mawj, he brings the winner of the One Thousand Guineas (G1) to Keeneland as a steppingstone to a possible start in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
“This is the right place for her,” bin Suroor said. “This was the plan to come here and then go to the Breeders’ Cup. Either the Mile (G1) or the Filly and Mare Turf (G1). I want to see how she runs here and then on to L.A.”
Saturday’s race will be the first for Mawj since she defeated four-time Group 1 winner Tahiyra by a half-length on May 7 in England’s One Thousand Guineas.
“Mawj had a little chest infection before Ascot (in the summer) and she had a break,” bin Suroor said of the five months between starts.
Oisin Murphy, who was aboard Mawj for the first time in the One Thousand Guineas, has the mount here Saturday.
