Gift List Draws Off For First Stateside Score in Edgewood

LOUISVILLE, KY – Amerman Racing Stables’ British-bred Gift List easily swept past the 1/5 favorite Aunt Pearl before drawing off for her first stateside score in Friday’s $300,000 Edgewood Stakes Presented by Newport Racing & Gaming (G2) at Churchill Downs.

Gift List broke well from post 2 under Javier Castellano as the 4/1 second choice in the field of seven 3-year-old fillies and saved ground in third heading into the clubhouse turn.

Aunt Pearl and jockey Florent Geroux set the pace as expected, posting fractions of :24.32, :49.03, and 1:13.00 as Zaajel gave closest watch through the far turn.

Castellano tipped Gift List out at the top of the stretch and sent her past Aunt Pearl in a flash before the Brian Lynch trainee kicked clear in the stretch to win the 1 1/16-mile good turf route by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:42.52.

“I didn’t have any special instructions today; just play the break and go from there,” Castellano said. “She broke fine and I got a very good spot. Then when I asked her, she gave me some amazing acceleration. She was a special winner today.”

Barista took second by 2 1/2 lengths over Line Dancing, who won a photo for third by a head and 3/4 of a length over Queen of the Green and Aunt Pearl, respectively. The heavy favorite weakened steadily to suffer her first defeat in her return from winning last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).

Postnup and Zaajel completed the order of finish.

Gift List’s win improved her overall record to 7-3-4-0 with $281,814 earned. The daughter of Bated Breath put together a 5-2-3-0 record before selling privately and heading to Lynch, who saddled her to a runner-up effort in the mile-long Appalachian Stakes (G2) at Keeneland April 3 in her American racing debut.

“Off the last race, in her first U.S. debut, she gave a great run that day in a race that had no pace,” Lynch said. “She’s really trained so well from her last start to this, even though we had to work her on the dirt, which was a new thing to her. She was very comfortable getting over it, and was getting plenty out of her works. I had a good feeling going into this race that if Aunt Pearl were to stub her toe, we’d have a good shot.”

Gift List returned $10.80 to win, $5.40 to place, and $4 to show. Barista brought back $16.40 to place and $11 to show. Line Dancing paid $10.20 to show.