Harty Hopes Racing Luck Comes Fair Maiden's Way in Madison

Trainer Eoin Harty is hoping that the second trip to Keeneland for Godolphin’s Fair Maiden has a better outcome than last fall’s initial venture to Lexington in an undercard race for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

“She had a very bad trip in the (Qatar) Fort Springs,” Harty understated of the run in which the filly had trouble at the start and was checked at the three-eighths pole. “She is overdue for some luck.”

Fair Maiden comes to town for Saturday’s $300,000 Madison (G1) going 7 furlongs on the main track and will have Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard for the first time.

In the Madison, she will be trying to make amends for an eighth-place finish in the Santa Monica (G2) at Santa Anita on Feb. 13.

“She was stuck down on the inside and when they hit the main track (out of the chute) the rider tapped her to hold position and she took off with him,” Harty said. “She is a little quirky and if you tap her, you had better mean it. He had to hit the brakes for the next three-eighths.”

A winner also on the all-weather surface at Arlington and the turf at Woodbine, Fair Maiden scored her biggest victory in the La Brea (G1) at Santa Anita to close an abbreviated 2020 campaign.

“She sustained a condylar fracture in the (2019) Breeders’ Cup (Juvenile Fillies Turf-G1),” Harty said of the reason for the 10-month break in races before a September return. “We gave her plenty of time.”

Fair Maiden has had five works at Santa Anita since the Santa Monica with the most recent being a 5-furlong drill in 1:01.60 on Sunday. She arrived at Keeneland on Monday.

“We go race by race with her, but the Madison was a race we planned to enter,” Harty said. “This is a good spot.”