||
![](https://paulickreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/23_1014_Mawj_mw-6415.jpg)
Mawj (Exceed and Excel) wins the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1) at Keeneland on 10.14.23. Oisin Murphy up, Saeed bin Suroor trainer, Godolphin, LLC. owner.
Trainer Saeed bin Suroor was traveling Sunday, but his Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) winner Mawj (IRE) was spending a quiet morning grazing outside Keeneland’s Barn 11 the day after her front-running half-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile turf race.
Owned and bred by Godolphin, Mawj is a half-sister to Breeders’ Cup winner Modern Games.
Mawj is headed next to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships with the $2 million FanDuel Mile (G1) against males or the $2 million Maker’s Mark Filly and Mare Turf (G1) going 1¼ miles as her options for Nov. 4.
Her departure date from Keeneland is to be determined. Mawj gave bin Suroor his 500th grade or group victory and his second stakes win at Keeneland. His previous victory came with Hatta Fort (GB) for Godolphin in the 2008 Perryville (G3).
Mawj held off a late bid from Everest Racing’s Lindy (FR) to secure a second consecutive Grade/Group 1 victory following her score in the English One Thousand Guineas in May.
“She ran too good to lose,” trainer Brendan Walsh said of Lindy. “I’ll talk it over with the boys and come up with a plan for her.”
A half-length back of Lindy in third was RyZan Sun Racing and Madaket Stables’ Mission of Joy, who made a run at Mawj in the stretch but was passed late to be denied second.
“She probably will head back to Fair Hill (Training Center in Maryland) on Wednesday,” said Alice Clapham, assistant to trainer Graham Motion. “Everybody was happy with her and she couldn’t have run any better. And now she is Grade 1-placed.”
Elusive Princess (FR), who finished fourth as the second choice in the field of nine, is scheduled to return to Fair Hill on Monday with plans to be determined, according to trainer Arnaud Delacour.