By admin 
About a month before the Aug. 15 King’s Plate at Woodbine, a five-time winner of North America’s oldest stakes race summed up the 2026 renewal of the Canadian classic.
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“If the filly runs back, we’re probably all running for second,” trainer Mark Casse said about Luster, who he would try to beat in the King’s Plate with a horse named Military Time.
Luster proved Casse right, along with the pundits and gamblers who hammered her down to 2-5 odds for the King’s Plate with a powerful 7 1/4-length win. The Ontario-bred daughter of Knicks Go won for the fifth time in six starts and looks to extend her win streak to four Saturday in the 43rd running of the $750,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1).
Luster doesn’t figure to be as short a price this time. She’s 5-2 on the morning line against a strong field that includes G1 winners Tam Tam and Kensington Lane and major players Faithful Departed, Braida, Deep Learning and Storm’s Wake.
Luster shipped from Woodbine to Keeneland Wednesday, bedded down in the stakes barn and walked the shedrow Thursday.
“She’s comfortable here,” said Sue Lorimer, assistant to trainer Josie Carroll. “She was here in the spring.”
Exercise rider Tanis Johnson made the trip with Lorimer and Luster, with Carroll set to arrive in Lexington Friday afternoon. Luster galloped under Johnson on the main track early Friday morning and visited the paddock toward the end of training hours, with a little grazing outside the stakes barn mixed into her morning.
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“She’s very relaxed here,” Johnson said. “When she’s walking, she’s not dragging me around like she does at Woodbine. That’s exactly what she needs right now, a little peace and quiet, because (Saturday) I don’t think she’ll be too peaceful. She’ll be ready to go. She’s definitely on the muscle.”
Luster gave Johnson plenty of positive signs during her first visit to Keeneland’s main track since before her victory in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race on the turf during the Spring Meet.
“I can hardly breathe when I’m pulling her up, especially down here,” Johnson said. “I feel like the air is a little dry and then it’s like, ‘Whew, oh my goodness.’ She doesn’t stop when you’re done galloping. She’s going to drag you all the way home. I don’t have to do much, just kind of let her take the wheel and make sure she doesn’t go too fast.”
Luster followed her Keeneland allowance win with a third in the Ruling Angel (L) going seven furlongs on Woodbine’s all-weather track in May. She won three straight after that – the Selene (G3), the Woodbine Oaks, and the King’s Plate.
An $80,000 purchase at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Luster races for owner Gainesway Stable and Andrew Rosen. Those owners will bid for a second Grade 1 win of the Fall Meet after taking the Alcibiades (G1) on opening day with another September Sale graduate, Emphatic.
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This story was originally published October 9, 2026 at 9:18 AM.