Weaver scraps Royal Ascot plan for Cy Fair, targets Saratoga rights

George Weaver chose caution over Royal Ascot prestige when Cy Fair came up short in the barn, and that decision sent one of America’s most intriguing turf sprint fillies back to Saratoga instead of onto a transatlantic flight. Cy Fair had been due to ship from Saratoga on Monday for the King Charles III Stakes, but Weaver pulled the plug after a couple of days he was not happy with her. Medallion Racing later said the filly had not been acting like herself and had missed a workout, underscoring why the connections refused to force the issue.

That matters because the King Charles III Stakes, run on the opening day of Royal Ascot, offers the winner an automatic Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint berth. Cy Fair had been a live 16-1 ante-post chance for the Group 1, and her cancellation removed one of the more compelling American challengers from the meeting’s marquee sprint. Weaver did not hide the logic: he was not prepared to put a horse on a flight when she was not doing everything he wanted at home.

Cy Fair’s résumé already makes the pause understandable. As a 2-year-old, she won three of four starts, missing perfection only by a neck in her lone defeat. She ended that season with back-to-back wins against males, first in the Algonquin at Woodbine and then in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, where she beat Aidan O’Brien’s Brussels by a length. Weaver freshened her over the winter, then brought her back in 2026 with a third-place run behind Slay the Day in the Limestone at Keeneland. Twenty days later, she turned the tables in the Mamzelle at Churchill Downs, a result that looked better when Slay the Day came back to win the $200,000 Grade 3 Soaring Softly Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on June 7.

The shift also resets Cy Fair’s summer map. Instead of Royal Ascot, Weaver said he will look for a race at Saratoga, where several options remain on the table. That keeps the filly on familiar ground and preserves a path toward the bigger American turf sprint races later in the season, rather than asking for a peak effort on foreign soil while she was not quite right.

Weaver has already shown he can handle Royal Ascot’s demands, winning the 2023 Queen Mary Stakes with Crimson Advocate. He will still have an Ascot presence this year with Sandal’s Song, who won the Royal Palm Juvenile at Gulfstream Park by 1 1/2 lengths on May 10, 2025. For Cy Fair, though, the long view won out. A filly with that kind of class does not need to be rushed when Saratoga and the rest of the summer are still waiting.