Expensive Queen, Segesta dead-heat in dramatic Jenny Wiley finish

A photo finish became a dead heat, and then a stewards’ review turned the $650,000 Jenny Wiley into one of Keeneland’s most dramatic spring races. Expensive Queen and Segesta could not be separated after 1 1/16 miles on turf in 1:40.98, leaving Medoro third, three-quarters of a length behind a pair of Grade I winners who both had to wait to find out whether they had won outright.

The race’s shape changed before the gate even opened when Lush Lips and Destino d’Oro scratched, pushing Segesta, the Juddmonte homebred off her Matriarch Stakes victory at Del Mar on Nov. 30, into favor. She broke from post 10 and got the better of the tactical setup, tracking the pace into the stretch under Flavien Prat and looking like the winner after taking command inside the final furlong. Expensive Queen, who arrived from Fair Grounds off her Albert M. Stall Memorial Stakes win on Feb. 14, had the harder trip from the rail. Luis Saez had to wait for room, then split horses and drive her to the fence, and she finished with a grinding run that put her nose on even terms right at the wire.

The shared finish mattered because it came in a Grade I and because it added another chapter to Chad Brown’s Keeneland dominance. Brown followed Zulu Kingdom’s Maker’s Mark Mile with the Jenny Wiley dead heat, giving him a weekend Grade I sweep and lifting him to 53 Keeneland stakes wins, good for second all time at the track. Keeneland had listed Brown at 51 stakes wins before the weekend and had already credited him with seven Jenny Wiley victories, with Ball Dancing, Sistercharlie, Rushing Fall in 2019 and 2020, Regal Glory, In Italian and Beaute Cachee all part of that run. On a spring meet carrying a season-record $8.6 million across 19 stakes, Brown once again left his stamp on one of the meet’s biggest turf prizes.

The dead heat also reshaped the immediate stakes picture. It gave Expensive Queen her first top-level triumph and added another Grade I to Segesta’s resume, while both stables came away with a result that keeps them squarely in the older turf filly and mare division. Baldo Hernandez said Segesta would likely point next to the $500,000 Just A Game on June 6 at Saratoga, and Paul Madden, assistant to Brendan Walsh, said of Expensive Queen, “She’s good this morning.” Peter Eurton said Medoro may target the $275,000 Mint Julep on May 30 at Churchill Downs.