LOUISVILLE, KY – Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing’s Concrete Rose came storming home down the middle of the track to surpass the heavily-favored Newspaperofrecord and upset Friday’s Edgewood Stakes (G3) Presented by Forcht Bank at Churchill Downs.
Breaking from post 5 under Julien Leparoux at 5/1 odds, Concrete Rose was content to settle along the rail in midpack early while the 1/5 bettors’ choice Newspaperofrecord posted opening fractions of :23.53, :47.87, and 1:12.68. Given the cue as she straightened for home, Concrete Rose tipped out and commenced a furious rally to the front.
The Rusty Arnold trainee was somehow able to close quickly despite running on the wrong lead, collaring and soon passing the early leader. Still running strongly as she completed the course, Concrete Rose crossed with a 3 3/4-length advantage in a final time of 1:43.34 for the 1 1/16-mile event over the good turf course.
“The course is good, it’s nice,” Leparoux said. “The rain didn’t make it too soft, and we hadn’t raced on the inside yet, so it was perfect. My filly was relaxed the whole time, and she made a big run at the end. I rode the race not paying attention to the one horse (Newspaperofrecord); I just wanted to pay attention to my filly. She was traveling good and was relaxed. I got out at the 1/4 pole and started asking her, and I knew she was going to give a big kick. The question was if the one was going to come back to me. Today, she was great.”
Newspaperofrecord faded steadily after being caught but still held second by 2 1/2 lengths over Winter Sunset, who took third over Cambier Parc by a neck. Much farther back came New Roo Fortunate Girl, and Destiny Over Fate to complete the order of finish.
“She broke extra sharp today and I took a big hold on her,” said Newspaperofrecord’s jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. “I was really holding her. Then at the end, she tried, but she just got beat today.”
Concrete Rose’s win was her second in as many starts this year, having won the Florida Oaks (G3) on March 9 at Tampa Bay Downs, and improved her overall record to 5-4-0-0. The 3-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy, whose lone loss came here in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last November, increased her career earnings mark to $418,650.
“She had one bad race; there were a lot of reasons for that,” Arnold said. “We ran her back pretty quick. She’s matured a lot at 3 and ran a good race. She beat a couple of good horses in there. I would have preferred for it not to have rained, but this turf is really fresh; we’ve only run on it three days. We got in on it in a lot better spot than last fall.”
Concrete Rose returned $13.80 to win, $3.40 to place, and $2.80 to show. Newspaperofrecord brought back $2.10 to place and $2.10 to show, while Winter Sunset paid $3.80 to show.
