LEXINGTON, Ky. – Percy’s Bar crossed the wire first in a Grade 1 on opening day of Keeneland's fall meeting, but was disqualified to second for interference. Percy’s Bar crossed the wire first in a Grade 1 on opening day of Keeneland’s spring meeting. This time, she got to keep it, with emphasis. The filly cut the corner with an adroit inside move and quickly powered clear, winning the Grade 1, $750,000 Ashland Stakes on Friday’s opening-day card in Lexington. With the 2 1/4-length score over previously-unbeaten Zany, she punched her ticket to the Grade 1, $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks in four weeks at Churchill Downs. “I think she deserved [the Grade 1] more than anything else,” said trainer Ben Colebrook, who bases in Keeneland’s Rice Road stable area year round and who has scored both his career Grade 1 wins at the track. “To do it here, it’s extra sweet, because it’s a redemption tour kind of thing.” Colebrook missed another Grade 1 when Percy's Bar was disqualified from the Alcibiades last October. The disqualification also prevented regular rider Luan Machado from capturing his first Grade 1 win, which he achieved Friday.  The Ashland was one of the final preps toward the Kentucky Oaks, offering points toward the 14-horse starting gate for the filly classic on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale. Percy’s Bar, an Upstart filly who races for Hat Creek Racing, will “of course” move on to the Oaks, Colebrook said. Runner-up Zany will also train toward the race, trainer Todd Pletcher said. :: Keeneland Spring Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, picks, news, and more. Percy's Bar won the Debutante at Churchill Downs before finishing second in the Grade 1 Spinaway and officially second, after lugging out in the stretch while on the lead, in the Alcibiades last year. She completed her season with a trip to Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies that turned adventurous when, attempting to advance inside, she was pinballed off the rail near the three-sixteenths pole. Percy’s Bar emerged with no ill effects, but with a harsh winter in Kentucky disrupting training schedules, Colebrook decided back in February not to ship out of town for a prep race, thinking that a road trip while the filly was not perfectly fit could knock her back for the Ashland, the main objective. So he elected to “circle the wagons” and train her strongly toward the Keeneland meet instead, and Percy's Bar responded with four consecutive bullet works coming in to the race. Despite that, Percy's Bar was relaxed warming up for Machado, and when the gates opened on Friday. The filly was away from the inside of the field of six, following the scratch of Nycon, who runs in the Grade 3 Gazelle tomorrow at Aqueduct and who had been drawn on the rail here. While Percy's Bar led in the Alcibiades, she sat farther off the pace in the Juvenile Fillies, and used similar tactics in her latest, rolling away from the gate well and settling along the inside in third. French Friction, stretching out off a win in the six-furlong Dixie Belle at Oaklawn, was intent on the lead, and got it easily enough through an opening quarter of 24.70 seconds on a drying-out track officially rated good at post time. French Friction was in hand through a half of 50.37 seconds. With the pace moderate, the six starters were all within three lengths of one another at that point, with Omaha Bay tracking French Friction on the outside of rail-riding Percy’s Bar. Meanwhile, Zany was getting an education in her fourth career start. The winner of last fall’s Grade 2 Demoiselle and, most recently, the Suncoast on Feb. 7 at Tampa, in which she looked around in the stretch, was in fifth, between and behind horses, around the first turn and into the backstretch before Irad Ortiz Jr. was able to work her into a free-running spot on the outside. “Got a lot of kickback, got some cover, so a lot of things that I think will help her at Churchill,” Pletcher said. French Friction tried to give them the slip, opening up by a length into the turn as she shook off Omaha Bay. Zany was uncoiling for a three-wide run on the outside with dead aim. But it was Percy’s Bar who got first run, as, approaching the quarter-pole, she responded immediately to Machado’s cue to shoot through inside of French Friction, showing no hesitation despite her poor experience running inside at the Breeders’ Cup. “That's something that most horses remember,” Colebrook said. “And it just goes to show you –  I mean, she didn’t quit running even after she hit the rail in the Breeders’ Cup. She's tough as nails.” Percy’s Bar was already clear by three lengths coming to the top of the short stretch, with the Keeneland’s first of two finish lines in use for the Ashland. There would be no reeling her in. “When Luan made that move, I think it was a knockout blow kind of thing,” Colebrook said. Zany kept slugging to the line, finishing willingly, but Percy’s Bar was never seriously threatened as she came to the line. She finished the 1 1/16 miles in 1:45.72 and earned a career-best 87 Beyer Speed Figure. Zany was 3 1/2 lengths clear of regally-bred Star Actress, making her stakes debut off a maiden win. “I thought she ran very well,” Pletcher said of Zany. “Was closing well at the end. The filly that won ran a great race, cut the corner, got the jump on us. [Zany] didn’t have time going to the first wire to get up in time, but I like the way she finished, I liked the way she was gaining in the end, I liked the way she galloped out.” French Friction faded to fourth, 9 1/4 lengths behind Star Actress. Omaha Bay and Hollybygolly rounded out order of finish. After celebrating, Colebrook, who mapped out a work schedule to get to the Ashland in top form, will begin mapping out a training schedule for Percy’s Bar toward the Oaks. The filly will do all her serious work at her Keeneland base – where Colebrook sent out Knicks Go to win the 2018 Breeders' Futurity for his only other prior career Grade 1 win training – toward what will be her second start off the layoff. “You’d have to worry a little bit about the bounce, but I think because we didn’t run her for so long, I think she'll be fine,” Colebrook said. “She doesn’t seem like a filly that’s a bounce [risk] because she’s very consistent.” Indeed, Percy’s Bar has never missed the board in six career starts, and is now, officially, a Grade 1 winner. “The good thing about the Alcibiades is, we didn’t ever tell her she got DQed,” Colebrook said. “So she still thinks she won.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.