Concrete Rose upsets Newspaperofrecord in Churchill Downs’ Edgewood

Newspaperofrecord looked to be in her dominant 2-year-old form, putting away a pair of stalkers off the turn of Churchill Downs’ Grade 3, $250,000 Edgewood Stakes. But on Friday’s Kentucky Oaks undercard, the star filly’s kick leveled off late.

Concrete Rose came running for an upset to pose a big question: Will Newspaperofrecord be the same this season, one in which connections were eyeing a trip to Royal Ascot, or did she simply need the race?

The daughter of Lope De Vega set all the fractions, opening in 23.53, 47.87 and 1:12.68 before Concrete Rose entered the picture under Julien Leparoux, with the duo completing 1 1/16 miles in a final winning time of 1:43.34 over “good” turf.

“Before the race we rode to be, not second — we wanted to win — but if we were second we would be happy if (Newspaperofrecord) won by six again,” Leparoux said.

Newspaperofrecord entered 3-for-3 with her last out race a dominant showing in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf over this same course. Should she move forward to Ascot, trainer Chad Brown noted the Klaravich Stables runner is eligible for the Coronation Stakes (G1).

Brown said Newspaperofrecord "ran out of gas" after going too fast -- and looking a bit keen first time across the wire -- in the early going.

“She’s a very nice filly, too,” Leparoux said. “I kind of rode the race not paying attention to Newspaperofrecord…she hasn’t raced for a long time. I knew we had a race underneath before, and she ran a big race today for sure.”

Winter Sunset ran on for third with Cambier Parc fourth in the Edgewood.

Rusty Arnold trains the winner for Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing. Concrete Rose, by Twirling Candy, led a group of trails up the back stretch before kicking on.

Arnold noted that last fall, Concrete Rose won the final Breeders' Cup "Win and You're In" qualifying race, Keeneland's Jessamine, and entered the championships both on the rail and as "a dull horse."

"She took the winter off and came back well," Arnold added. "...Sometimes good's not good enough. Today it was."