Aunt Pearl starts season as lone speed in Edgewood Stakes
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The good news for the six fillies assembled to face unbeaten Aunt Pearl in her season debut in the Grade 2, $300,000 Edgewood Stakes on Friday on the Churchill Downs turf? She’s probably not at her very, very best coming off the bench.
“I’m not gonna say 100 percent,” trainer Brad Cox said. “The screws are probably 95 percent.”
The bad news for her foes? That 95 percent may still be plenty good enough to handle this task. Aunt Pearl, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last fall, is, in fact, the only graded stakes winner on turf in this field of seven 3-year-old fillies. She will loom as one of the shortest-priced favorites on Friday’s card.
“She’s really, really doing well,” Cox said. “She looks like she’s fit and moving great and happy, so I’m excited about getting her started this year.”
Aunt Pearl won all three of her starts last year on the lead and by open lengths. After taking her debut in September on this Churchill Downs course, she won the Grade 2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland. She won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf on the same course by 2 1/2 lengths. She earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 91, far and away the top number in this field.
“I do feel like she’s tight off the layoff,” Cox said. “She puts enough into her works and her gallops to give us the confidence.”
Aunt Pearl drew post 6 under regular rider Florent Geroux and appears to be the Edgewood’s lone speed on paper. Postnup, coming off maiden and allowance wins at Fair Grounds in stalking fashion, drew the rail under Irad Ortiz Jr. and could take the initiative to press Aunt Pearl if no others emerge to do so.
Gift List won 2 of 5 outings in England as a juvenile and also was minor stakes-placed. She finished a fine second in the Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland in her first start for Brian Lynch, improving her position late on a day when no one was able to reel in the free-running Jouster. Gift List earned a Beyer of 82, the second-best career number in this field, and Javier Castellano remains in the irons Friday.
Zaajel is the only other graded stakes winner in this field, but is trying turf for the first time for trainer Todd Pletcher. She won the Grade 3 Forward Gal Stakes on dirt at Gulfstream Park in just her second career start and then finished sixth in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks at 1 1/16 miles. The daughter of successful shuttle sire Street Sense is out of a stakes-performing dirt mare from the family of turf marathon specialist United.
Line Dancing, fourth in the Sanibel Island last out; Queen of the Green, fifth in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks; and Barista, unplaced in a pair of Fair Grounds stakes on both dirt and turf, complete the field.