Newspaperofrecord facing few challengers in Edgewood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Six months after concluding an unbeaten 2-year-old campaign with a 6 3/4-length romp in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Newspaperofrecord makes a return appearance on the Churchill Downs grass course as the headliner of Friday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Edgewood Stakes on Kentucky Oaks Day.

Her presence contributed to the race having the shortest stakes field of the day. Only six rivals are lined up to face the comebacking filly, who is favored at 3-5 odds on the morning line after winning all three of her races in 2018 with ease. Two of her foes, New Roo and Destiny Over Fate, are unraced on turf and 30-1 outsiders.

Last year, in addition to her dismantling of 13 foes in the Breeders’ Cup, Newspaperofrecord won the Miss Grillo handily at Belmont Park on Sept. 30, which followed a similar blowout vs. maidens at Saratoga on Aug. 19. All three victories came over wet turf, conditions possible Friday with a threat of rain in the forecast.

“She’s been training right along at Palm Meadows and she is ready to run,” said Chad Brown, who trains her for Klaravich Stables. “It seems like a good spot to get her started. She’s comfortable here at Churchill.”

Regular jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. returns in the irons on the speedy filly, an Irish-bred daughter of Lope de Vega.

Among the next-race options for her are an overseas trip to Royal Ascot for the Group 1 Coronation Stakes on June 21, or a summer U.S. campaign focused around races in New York. One possible target for her is the Grade 1, $750,000 Belmont Oaks on July 6, although that race is at 1 1/4 miles, a distance over which she is untested.

The 1 1/16 miles of the Edgewood is more in her comfort zone. Her first two victories last year came over that distance.

Brown also trains another Edgewood participant in 2-1 Cambier Parc, who has won two in a row since shifting from dirt to turf. After rolling by four lengths in a maiden race Jan. 2 at Gulfstream, she took the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride by three-quarters of a length on March 2.

“A nice filly, and for a lack of options, I couldn’t really separate her,” Brown said of why he entered two in the race. “She is a filly I think will get the mile and a quarter at some point. The Belmont Oaks is a long-term goal.”

Winter Sunset and Concrete Rose are the other stakes-winning 3-year-old fillies in the lineup.

Concrete Rose won in the Grade 2 Jessamine at Keeneland last fall and the Grade 3 Florida Oaks on March 9. Rather that bring Concrete Rose back on relatively short rest to run at the recently concluded Keeneland spring meet, trainer Rusty Arnold elected to wait for the Edgewood, believing she performs best with time between starts. Her lone defeat in four races, an eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, came when she raced on approximately three weeks’ rest and over the inside portion of a soaked Churchill Downs turf course that Arnold feels compromised her.

With Newspaperofrecord making her first start of the year, Arnold thinks now is the time for Concrete Rose to try her.

“If we can’t compete with her now, we can’t compete,” Arnold said.