Brown looks to break rare schneid in Edgewood Stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Graded turf stakes for fillies. Trainer Chad Brown with three entrants. This seems simple enough.

But do slow down ever so slightly, dear bettor. The Grade 2, $500,000 Edgewood Stakes for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles on turf has not been one of Brown’s personal playgrounds. None of his nine previous starters managed to win the Edgewood, and, in fact, Brown might shudder slightly whenever he hears the race’s name.

In 2019, Newspaperofrecord, who had been sensational as a 2-year-old, was defeated at odds of 1-5 in the Edgewood. The year before, the great Rushing Fall, a 6-5 chance, was beaten.

None of Brown’s trio this year so far has demonstrated anything like the ability those two fillies possessed, but all three of his entrants – McKulick, Dolce Vel, and Spicer – have merit.

Dolce Zel, a French import to be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., comes off a solid second behind the excellent filly Spendarella, but there is both good and bad to that. No rival as talented as Spendarella awaits in the Edgewood, but Dolce Zel did run hard trying to catch her April 9 at Keeneland, and four weeks before that had run down Spicer to win the Florida Oaks at Tampa in her North American debut.

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“She’s a nice horse, a handy horse. She’s training just fine, but she’s not that big and this is her third start in 12 weeks,” Brown said. “I didn’t see an alternative for her, so we decided to run her here and then give her a breather and point to Saratoga.”

Brown said he targeted the Edgewood with Spicer shortly after the Florida Oaks on March 12. In that race, Spicer’s first since a Nov. 19 maiden win, the Quality Road filly tracked a slow pace, forging to the front in upper stretch. But Dolce Zel, deploying a superior turn of foot, pounced on her past the furlong grounds, taking a lead, and while Spicer fought back gamely and narrowed the margin at the finish, she was defeated.

“I pointed her to this race because she needs a minimum of 1 1/16 miles,” Brown said.

McKulick, a highly regarded Frankel filly, nicely won her career debut, a Saratoga turf-route maiden, but could only finish third as the odds-on favorite Oct. 2 in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes, her most recent race. Brown said he considered a first-level allowance race in New York for McKulick before choosing the Edgewood.

“Off her last couple works, I feel like she’ll be just fine starting off in a stakes race,” Brown said. “This filly, she won’t mind cut in the ground, either.”

A soft or yielding turf course seems likely Friday if the early week forecast holds. McKulick has been working regularly with the older horse L’Imperator, third in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch last summer. Video of her final turf work at Palm Beach Downs before Brown shipped her north shows McKulick more than holding her own against her older workmate.

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None of these Brown horses has to win, however, and the pick is Beechnut Trophy. Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., this filly has run well in all three of her turf starts, and while Edgewood starter My Philly Twirl defeated her April 2 in the Sanibel Island at Gulfstream, that had everything to do with trip. My Philly Twirl pressed a slow pace while Beechnut Trophy raced from sixth. She was steadied past the three-eighths pole and then lacked room to make her run, and once unleashed on the outside finished fast enough to only miss by a head.

Dream Lith, who won the Grade 2 Golden Rod here last fall, never has tried turf and does not have a grass-leaning pedigree. She’d rate a solid chance should the Edgewood be rained off turf, but trainer Robertino Diodoro said the filly was likely to try grass if the race stays on.

Brendan Walsh trains My Philly Twirl, who might not have as much talent as Walsh’s second runner, New Year’s Eve, the latter racing for the first time in blinkers.

Tap Dancing Lady, Kneesnhips, and An Agent Mistake complete the field.