BY BROCK SHERIDAN

Florida-bred Queen Maxima hit a high gear with a furlong to run then left her rivals in her wake with a dominating performance in the $329,500 Unbridled Sidney presented by Cygames (Grade 3) at Churchill Downs Friday. The 4-year-old filly, who races in the colors of Dutch Girl Holdings LLC and Irving Ventures LLC, finished the five-and-a-half furlongs on the turf in a record 1:01.29 on the good turf. In defeating eight other fillies and mares, Queen Maxima won her fifth straight and third consecutive stakes. 

Ag Bullet, the 3-2 favorite under Umberto Rispoli, broke fastest from post four but was quickly overtaken by Florida-bred Epona’s Hope and jockey Joel Rosario for the run down the backstretch. Meanwhile, Queen Maxima and Juan Hernandez raced patiently in fourth from three-and-half lengths back. Epona’s Hope shook free around the turn after a quarter mile in :21.76 as Ag Bullet raced in second to the inside of Crown Imperial, two lengths in front of Queen Maxima on the rail in fourth. 

Turning for home, Epona’s Hope felt pressure from Crown Imperial to her outside as she kept Ag Bullet boxed in on the rail with Queen Maxima swinging four-wide to make her run. Epona’s Hope closed the gap on Ag Bullet in the stretch run as Queen Maxima drew even at the eighth pole before sprinting clear to win by three-and-a-half lengths. Crown Imperial was second, a neck in front of Epona’s Hope in third. Bling was a length farther back in fourth followed by Cloudwalker, Gavea (Ger), Ag Bullet, Astemia and Awesome Treat.

Queen Maxima paid $6.28 to win.

A winner of two optional claiming races sprinting on the Santa Anita turf in December and January, Queen Maxima won her first stakes by taking the $100,000 Wishing Well for fillies and mare going six furlongs on the grass on Feb. 22—winning by three-and-a-half lengths. She repeated that performance on April 5 while racing six-and-a-half furlongs coming off the downhill turf course at Santa Anita with a four-and-a-quarter-length score.

Queen Maxima is trained by Jeff Mullins and improved her record to six wins in nine starts with two seconds. She earned $178,560 to push her career revenues to $549,460.

Michael Pender as agent purchased Queen Maxima out of the 2023 Ocala Breeders’ Sale June Sale of 2-year-olds in training for $40,000 where she was consigned by Blue River Bloodstock.
(Queen Maxima’s Under Tack Video / Walking Video)

Bred in Florida by Saul Rosas, Queen Maxima is by Bucchero out of Corfu Lady, by Corfu. 

She is the first of two foals out of Corfu Lady, a four-time winning Florida-bred mare, also bred by Rosas. Her fourth dam is the graded stakes-placed Sugar’s Image, who produced multiple grade stakes-winning Florida-bred Halo’s Image. Queen Maxima is the only starter for Corfu Lady.

Queen Maxima is the third Florida-bred winner of the Unbridled Sidney after Wild About Marie in 2012 and Ambassador Luna in 2020.

Return to the May 2 issue of Wire to Wire