The final Grade 1 stakes at Keeneland for 2025 takes place Saturday as centerpiece on a 10-race card that begins at 1 pm ET. The $800,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup matches 3-year-old fillies in a showcase that boasts a winner’s roll call with the likes of She Feels Pretty, Rushing Fall, Dayatthespa, Film Maker, Perfect Sting and Ryafan over the years.

Let’s meet the contenders for the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (Race 9):

#1-LUSH LIPS: Del Mar Oaks runner-up has been well-traveled between Florida, Kentucky and California this season. She’s been first or second in 6 straight starts dating back to last fall. Trainer Brendan Walsh got off to a red-hot start to the Keeneland Fall Meet with 5 winners, including the Jessamine and Spinster Stakes.

#2-LAURELIN: Unbeaten filly looks for her sixth career win following a Grade 2 Saratoga Oaks Invitational score. Her 5 wins have come by 5-1/4 combined lengths. Trainer Graham Motion won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in 2003 with Film Maker. Regular rider Kendrick Carmouche seeks his first Keeneland turf victory and first local score of any kind since the 2011 Fall Meet, having made infrequent visits.

#3-SIMMERING: English-based Ollie Sangster is a former Wesley Ward assistant and makes his first Keeneland appearance as a head trainer. Third in this year’s Group 1 English One Thousand Guineas, this filly exits a third in France’s Group 3 Prix de Lieurey at Deauville. Local rider Luis Saez picks up the mount. Simmering could join 2023 winner Mawj as the only internationally based QE2 winners in the past decade and the fourth overall.

#4-DAISY FLYER: Saratoga’s Grade 3 Lake George winner makes her first Grade 1 appearance for trainer Rusty Arnold, who last week passed Bill Mott as Keeneland’s all-time leading trainer by wins (308). Florent Geroux piloted Her Emmyneency to victory in this race in 2015. Daily Flyer looks to bounce back off a troubled trip in the Grade 3 Dueling Grounds Oaks behind QEII rivals Fionn and Candy Quest.

#5-OPULENT RESTRAINT: Chad Brown has a record 5 wins in the QEII, (2012, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022). He’ll search for a sixth with this Grade 1 Belmont Oaks and Grade 2 Saratoga Oaks-placed filly. Daughter of Dubawi has chased race rivals Laurelin, Fionn and Lush Lips in starts this year. Jockey Joel Rosario won this race with Harmonious in 2010.

#6-CANDY QUEST: Posted a last-to-second rally in the Grade 3 Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs last time, caught in the shadow of the wire by return rival Fionn. Trainer Mark Casse had success in this race with front-running La Coronel (2017). Jockey Jose Ortiz has the return call on the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen Stakes winner who will be racing at her sixth different track this year.

#7-DESTINO D’ORO: Last year’s narrow third-place finisher in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Jessamine returns to the scene while Irad Ortiz Jr. takes the mount for the first time. She won Ellis Park’s Grade 3 Pucker Up Stakes this summer and looks to rebound off a disappointing sixth in the Grade 3 Dueling Grounds Oaks as an odds-on favorite. Both trainer Brad Cox and jockey Ortiz seek their first wins in this race.

#8-WILL THEN: After summering on the west coast, the San Clemente third-place finisher and Del Mar Oaks fifth-place finisher makes her first career appearance at Keeneland. Jockey Frankie Dettori won both the Woodford Stakes and Jessamine Stakes on the Keeneland turf during the Fall Meet’s opening weekend. Jonathan Thomas trains the daughter of 2019 Preakness winner War of Will, who returned in 2020 to win Keeneland’s Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile over this turf course.

#9-FIONN: Field’s hottest filly has won 3 straight and 6 of her last 7, including hard-fought scores in the Grade 3 Regret, Grade 1 Belmont Oaks and Grade 3 Dueling Grounds Oaks over 3 diverse courses. Trainer Brad Cox looks to avenge this filly’s only defeat in her last 7 races, a third-place finish in April’s Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes – her only previous run at Keeneland. Jockey Flavien Prat is a 2-time winner of the QEII, back-to-back with Shantisara and Gina Romantica in 2021-’22 (both for Chad Brown).