by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — It takes some horses a little bit of time to figure out what is expected from them or what they are willing to give after they enter competition and Queen Of Royalty fits that pattern. In her case, however, it may not really be what’s best for her, but her connections certainly will not argue with the results.

The 8-year-old daughter of Albert Albert and the Cam’s Card Shark mare Queen Of Sharks has compiled a record of 167-45-20-20, a lifetime mark of 1:51.2f paced last season, purse money of $380,510 and just captured a $40,000 leg of the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series on March 30 at Yonkers Raceway.

“As a 2- and 3-year-old she was pretty relaxed, but when she turned four, a light went on,” remembered her owner/trainer Allen Sisco. “That’s when she decided it was time to go the minute the gate left. Most of her wins have been on the front end, which is the way she likes it. I think she set the track record at Sports Creek, Northville and Hazel Park all on the front end.

“She’s kind of tough that way, so we have to kind of pick and choose when she leaves or doesn’t,” the 45-year-old Bad Axe, Mich., resident continued. “My wife takes care of her every day and they are inseperable and she’s probably the reason we’ve gotten out of her what we have. She has done pretty well for herself and for us, so we can’t complain too much.”

The Siscos officially purchased Queen Of Royalty, who is Queen Of Shark’s only surviving foal, when she was three, but cared for her since her first step as they had also trained her dam and were involved in the process of selecting a stud for her.

Mike Lizzi photo

Queen Of Royalty was a 1:53 winner in her Blue Chip Matchmaker division on March 30.

In her debut season, Queen Of Royalty proved Sisco’s intuitions were correct by finishing third in both the $99,858 Robert Stewart and the $45,000 She’s A Great Lady Consolation at Mohawk. As a 3-year-old, the filly contested Ontario Sire Stakes races, and throughout the following years has performed primarily at Woodbine, Hazel Park, Sports Creek Raceway, Windsor and Northville Downs.

Her next engagement is in another $40,000 Blue Chip Matchmaker Series leg on Friday (April 6) in the seventh race where she will begin her mile from post two at morning line odds of 5-1.

“Her breeder passed away when she was three and we bought her from his estate,” Sisco explained. “To make a long story short, we had her since she was a baby, as I trained her mother for Mr. (William) Roberts and we wanted to breed her to Albert Albert. He was a hands-off owner and we always did everything. Queen Of Royalty is the product of that breeding and I thought she had something right from the get-go.

“She had some races as a 2-year-old, but we never really had good luck in the big races,” he continued. “She just could never quite get the trip and was always competitive but could never get over the hump when she was going with the good ones.”

The mare is excellent in the barn and the only time she truly asserts herself is on the track and that even applies to training miles.

“She just wants to go a 100 mph all the time and it doesn’t matter who is out there because all she wants to do is pass them,” said Sisco, whose pupils have earned more than $3 million during his 22-year training career. “Since we shipped in to the Mark Ford Center I’ve been pleasantly surprised. We’ve gotten into a good routine with her where she goes out into the field in the morning so by the time we get her to the track, things have slowed down a bit and then we take her out for her second jog and she is relaxed.

“It’s also been a bonus to me that we only have to ship her for an hour,” he continued. “At home we have to ship her five hours to race at Woodbine, but I also have what I call my ‘turf track’ at home, so I jog her on grass every day and then she’s pretty good. She is also really good about everything else, like loading and shipping. She’s actually the consummate professional in those ways. It’s only on the track that she is a handful.”

Sisco was pleased with the mare’s effort last week and hopes she will duplicate it this coming weekend.

“She raced really good and beat a couple good ones in there for sure,” he said. “She has always been consistent and gives 110 percent, so if she draws well we expect her to do well. If she draws poorly that’s something else, because she is kind of tough to drive in that it’s always her way or no way.

“We don’t have her staked to anything other than this series,” Sisco continued. “We are just trying to make a dollar and our initial goal was to make the consolation while picking up some checks. We are sticking to that goal and anything else is just icing on the cake.”

At this point, plans for the rest of Queen Of Royalty’s races this year are very fluid.

“My daughter graduates from high school the first week of June and is off to Western Michigan in the fall,” Sisco said. “After this series we will take Queen Of Royalty home, turn her out to some grass for about a month and see what happens. Michigan is kind of falling apart and we have been looking to relocate, so getting off to a good start here helps and if all goes well, in the fall we will probably come back. It depends on what we can figure out.”