![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Meringue-e1756695535848.jpg\")
<\/dt>\nFRANKLIN \u2014\u00a0With four horses hitting the finish seemingly together in the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies, trainer Rodolphe Brisset thought Meringue had won. But he wasn\u2019t going to take anything for granted. Still, no other jockey other than Luan Machado stayed on his mount after pulling up near the winner\u2019s circle.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the TV it looked like we were up,\u201d Brisset said after Meringue\u2019s head victory over Red Beretta. \u201cBut you always want to be sure, right? It was a great effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
To a Flame finished another nose back in third, with Rose Bloom a head back in fourth in the field of ten 2-year-old fillies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty sure I did,\u201d Machado said of winning. \u201cThey started taking too long. I was confused, because I thought I won.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meringue continued to prove adept on both turf and dirt. After winning her debut at five-eighths of a mile on turf at Churchill Downs, she finished second on dirt in Saratoga\u2019s Grade 3 Adirondack.<\/p>\n
Asked what\u2019s in her future, Brisset joked, \u201cI\u2019ll run her on the dirt next time. That\u2019s the plan. Turf, dirt, turf, dirt. No, I\u2019ll just see how she comes out of it. We\u2019ll have the option between the Alcibiades (Grade 1 on dirt) or the Jessamine (G2 on turf) at Keeneland. I think she can run on both surfaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday the trip was not really the trip we were looking for. She broke way better than we expected. She\u2019s not a very good gate horse. Today she showed she\u2019s learned, so we\u2019ll see what happens. I want to give myself a couple of days and decide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether on turf or dirt, Brisset believes Meringue is of the quality to run in a Breeders\u2019 Cup 2-year-old race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have run her on a Grade 3 on dirt at Saratoga and then come back here in the $1 million race if we didn\u2019t think she had enough talent to be in a high league,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meringue closed from ninth, about five lengths off the early lead, with Machado fanning her out to chase down the leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe broke very sharp, but\u00a0there were some horses that were very determined to get the lead,\u201d Machado said. \u201cShe ended up stepping back a little bit, maybe a little farther than I wanted to be, because she broke too good. I wasn\u2019t supposed to get back that far, but she kind of got in a little tight spot. I would rather stay comfortable, laying behind than be in trouble and give her an uncomfortable trip just to try to stay in a spot (where) I didn\u2019t belong. But I\u2019m glad she responded well to that. She recovered very nicely, and I was able to save her a little bit to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind fractions of 22.10 seconds, 44.80, 1:09.37 and 1:21.57, Meringue finished up the mile in 1:34.61. She paid $13.20, $6.14\u00a0and $5.98 as the fourth choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0last quarter was when I really asked her \u2026 and she fought, she fought back,\u201d Machado said. \u201cShe was a warrior today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Red Beretta finished second at 75-1 under Evin Roman, with To a Flame 8-1 and Rose Room 18-1. Soloist was another half-length back in fifth, followed by Oscar\u2019s Encore, favored Loveliest, I\u2019ve Got the Honey, Back Ring Buzz and Chambourcin.<\/p>\n
Machado now is 2 for 2 on Meringue, with Flavien Prat aboard for the Adirondack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time out we were very impressed,\u201d Machado said. \u201cWe knew she was OK. But in the race, she showed way more than what she showed in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked why he started Meringue out on turf, Brisset said: \u201cThis year we\u2019re fortunate enough to have a really good group of 2-year-olds, and everybody got ready at the same time. She was working good on the dirt. The timing was right to run her in there (on turf at Churchill Downs). I was hoping the race would come off the turf, too. But you get (her sire) Frosted, Tapit, Street Sense mare, I didn\u2019t see anything against running her on grass. The owners are really nice. I told them she may get beat first time out, but we want to give her the experience and go from there. That\u2019s what we do. So we ran her that day, and she made us look good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a graded stakes at Saratoga. She\u2019s worked great on the dirt. It was a short field. We got a little unlucky. She drew the inside first time out; she took a left coming out of the gate. She drew the outside second time out, she took a right turn. You can see today she broke forward. We were hoping she\u2019d learn the gate issue, hoping she\u2019ll learn racing. She\u2019s improving, and that was a very good race.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kentucky-bred Meringue earned $586,750 and now had made $691,050 for owners Stephen and Denise Smith\u2019s Elements Racing. They also bred the filly under the name of Mesingw Farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not all about the money,\u201d Brisset said. \u201cWe just want to win races, and the money just comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meringue wins four-horse photo in Juvenile Fillies Published 10:05 pm Sunday, August 31, 2025 Trainer Rodolphe Brisset visits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-388650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115127471954644963","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}