Green Empress set for mouthwatering clash with Sun Goddess and Amusingly Green Empress has the bruises to show for banging her head repeatedly against the brick wall that is Sun Goddess but will make one last attempt to down her in the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland on Friday. Connections pitch the filly alongside a dozen other challengers in the mile contest on turf with better knowledge than most of just how difficult it will be to get the better of the Ballydoyle superstar. Her three efforts to do just that so far this campaign have seen her beaten into second three times and by an aggregate distance of just over a dozen lengths, too. Yet with the old adage of never being afraid of one horse firmly in mind, trainer Joseph O’Brien and owners The Thoroughbred Corporation are hopeful it may be fourth time lucky in Kentucky on the opening night of the Breeders’ Cup spectacular. “I think our filly has done nothing wrong all season bar get beat by one filly,” said the owners’ representative Jane Mangan. “She has trained well and she has progressed, so we have to give it try. We may know our fate early, if we get out quick from that stall (one) or not, but she has progressed. “Sun Goddess is the best around, but we are keeping her company.” Those three attempts to date, all at the Curragh, have seen her beaten five lengths in a maiden in May, three-quarters of a length in a Group Two in June and six and a half lengths in the Group One Moyglare Stud Stakes in September. But since then Green Empress has landed the Group One Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc day at ParisLongchamp, her best run of the season and one which filled connections with hope she is improving at the back end of the campaign. “She was very good that day and showed her tenacity, while we felt the ground was a little bit softer than ideal on Moyglare day,” added Mangan. “That is not to take anything away from the winner who was awesome. But ours has a good draw and the mile will suit us very well, as we saw in France.” Since finishing second to Libertango in the Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, Sun Goddess (drawn nine) has carried all before her. A win in a Curragh Group Two was followed by victories in the Group One Phoenix Stakes, a valuable sales race at York, the Moyglare and Newmarket’s Cheveley Park Stakes. Trainer Aidan O’Brien has made no secret of the regard he holds his star filly insisting this week she could be the best filly ever to pass through his hands. “Johannesburg won four Group Ones in different countries, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (on dirt), but he wasn’t as scopey as this filly, who is on springs,” said O’Brien, who goes into the meeting tied with Bob Baffert on 21 Breeders’ Cup wins. “She looks very special and looks like she could be (the best I’ve trained). She is very special and very unique in everything she does.” Francis-Henri Graffard holds his filly Amusingly in similarly high regard following a length-and-a-quarter win from Group One-winning colt Folsom Blues in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere “It was an amazing win in the Lagardere, where they went a really fast pace. It was very impressive and she looked amazing beating a colt that day,” said Graffard. “I have always loved this filly and was upset with myself when I got the trip wrong on her previous start. “She has the attributes you look for in a top-class racehorse but it will be very hard, we will need luck in running and we have to beat a champion in Sun Goddess. “But I think it’s nice for the sport that the owners (Juddmonte) were keen for the challenge. “Hopefully there will be a lot of pace in the race and she can settle and show her amazing turn of foot, but it is a different mile. It’s also only her fourth run of the year and we have to break outside Sun Goddess, but we have a very good filly and whatever she does on Friday we have her for next year. “The race can be very tactical, but Colin (Keane) knows his filly now. She looks beautiful and is bred to be a champion.”
