Concrete Rose wins Keeneland's Jessamine, earns Breeders' Cup trip

Trainer Rusty Arnold admitted that, were it not for the timing of the Breeders’ Cup, he would have thrown Concrete Rose into stakes company in only her second start. With that risk came plenty of reward Wednesday when the daughter of Twirling Candy emerged a winner in Keeneland’s Grade 2, $200,000 Jessamine Stakes.

The final “Win and You’re In” Challenge race delivers Concrete Rose a fees-paid trip to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf run Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs. Notably, the Jessamine produced last year’s Breeders’ Cup winner, Rushing Fall.

"We are going to the Breeders' Cup if everything goes right," Arnold said. "My biggest concern here was getting in the race. We were worried all week about getting in, and when we did, we were pretty relaxed."

Bet down from 6-1 to 5-2 at post time, Concrete Rose was content to stalk fractions of 23.34 and 48.04 seconds set by the front-running City Diva. Once tipped out in the stretch by Jose Lezcano, Concrete Rose was off to an easy win, completing 1 1/16 miles in a final time of 1:44.09.

Lezcano said his horse broke well enough to get to the lead, but he elected to hold back.

"She settled very good," he added, "and when I asked her at the quarter pole, she went on to win the race.”

The $61,000 purchase as a 2-year-old, Concrete Rose runs for Ashbrook Farm and BBN Racing. She entered off an Aug. 20 debut win at Saratoga going 5 1/2 furlongs.

"We thought the sprint was too short," Arnold said. "We knew two turns was what she wanted, and when she won that day we pointed for this race. We had almost two months to be ready."

Pakhet ran second with Belle Laura third as they crossed the wire in a blanket behind the winner.