Obligatory Flies Late To Snatch Eight Belles Victory From Dayoutoftheoffice

“Pace makes the race.”

So said jockey Jose Ortiz, who figured going into Friday's Grade 2 Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., that the early fractions were going to be fast.

Aboard Juddmonte Farms homebred Obligatory in the seven-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies, Ortiz could see all but one of the 12 runners ahead of him as the field rounded the turn into the stretch.

But, as Ortiz surmised, the pace was fast: 21.89 for the opening quarter mile and :44.46 for the half mile. Dayoutoftheoffice – the 3-1 favorite making her first start since finishing second in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies last Nov. 6 at Keeneland – had chased the early leaders and was moving to the lead with just under a quarter mile to go.

The Into Mischief filly looked home free after six furlongs in 1:09.16, but a gray blur on the outside in the form of Obligatory – a daughter of Curlin – was closing relentlessly. She seized command in the final sixteenth and drew off to win by a length. Time for the seven furlongs on a fast track was 1:21.89.

Dayoutoftheoffice finished second, with Make Mischief 1 3/4 lengths back in third and Souper Sensational fourth. She was followed by Abrogate, Li'l Tootsie, Caramel Swirl, Slumber Party, Cantata, Euphoric and Windmill. Kalypso, according to the Equibase chart, bled and was eased in the stretch.

Obligatory, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, who was winning the Eight Belles for the third time, paid $35 for the upset.

Longshot Euphoric jumped out to the early lead, with Windmill breathing down her neck in the long run down the backstretch. Dayoutoftheoffice raced in third, three wide, just behind the leading pair. Ortiz allowed Obligatory to trail the field.

Jockey Gerardo Corrales made his move to the lead on Dayoutoftheoffice as the top pair began to fade, opening a 2 1/2-length advantage with a furlong to run. But his filly was not able to hold off the late-running winner.

“She ran her heart out,” said Corrales. “I thought my filly was in a good position turning for home but could not hold off the winner.”

“They were going very fast,” said Ortiz. “It looked on paper, too, before the race they were gonna go pretty fast. I just tried to sit chilly and make one run on her. That's what I did and she gave it to me. The pace makes the race.”

Obligatory was coming off a fourth-place finish going two turns in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks on March 20, and Ortiz thinks the cutback in distance also helped the filly. Plus, he pointed out, the top two finishers that day – Travel Column and Clairiere – were two top-class fillies who would be competing later Friday in the Kentucky Oaks.

The Eight Belles was Obligatory's second win in four starts and first in a stakes. She left the maiden ranks in her second start going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 7.

“I think she was a little confused when she ran two turns in New Orleans (Fair Grounds Oaks),” said Mott. “She ran a very big effort at Gulfstream, had a little trouble, had to check coming around, you could see visually it was a very good effort. We thought she was good enough to go to the Fair Grounds Oaks, I think she's good enough, but she's green and the two turns confused the heck out of her. Maybe we could find out down the road that she's a better one-turn horse. I think five weeks away, they run the Acorn. I have no reason to believe she can't get a mile. And sometimes the two-turn deal could be a greenness thing. The pace today turned out good. We both knew there was a tremendous amount of speed in the race. She was able to close into it. She had a good kick. You just hope it didn't take too much out of her, she got the win and I think she earned a ticket into a good race like the Acorn.”

Trainer Bill Mott and jockey Jose Ortiz fist bump after the Eight Belles win by Obligatory

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Gift List Shows Stretch Wallop To Win Edgewood Stakes; Aunt Pearl Fifth At 1-5 Odds

Making her second start in the U.S. for trainer Brian Lynch, Amerman Racing Stables LLC's Gift List trounced previously unbeaten Aunt Pearl by 4 1/4 lengths in Friday's Grade 2 Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., accelerating past the 1-5 favorite with an explosive turn of foot to win going away under Javier Castellano.

Barista finished second by 2 1/2 lengths, with Line Dancing edging Queen of the Green in a photo finish for third. Aunt Pearl, whose three victories culminated with a front-running score last Nov. 6 in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, checked in fifth in the field of seven 3-year-old fillies after setting the fractions.

Gift List, a Bated Breath filly bred in England by James Ortega Bloodstock Ltd., covered 1 1/16 miles on a good turf course in 1:41.94. She paid $10.80 as the second choice in the wagering off a second-place finish April 3 in the Grade 2 Appalachian Stakes at Keeneland.

Aunt Pearl went to the front as expected under Florent Geroux (she won all three of her races as a juvenile going wire to wire), but the Todd Pletcher-trained Zaajel,a Street Sense filly making her fourth career start and first on turf, put some pressure on the Irish-bred Lope de Vega filly from the outset. Aunt Pearl went the opening quarter mile in :24.32 and the half in :49.03, but the third quarter was run in a shade under 24 seconds for a six-furlong split of 1:13.00.

Rounding the far turn, jockey Luis Saez stepped up the pressure with Zaajel, while Castellano sat chilly just behind the two front-runners. saving ground throughout their journey.

When the field tipped into the stretch, Aunt Pearl still clung to the lead, but Castellano swung Gift List to the front-runners outside and quickly accelerated past that one, passing the mile marker in 1:36.61 and was under light encouragement to the wire.

Castellano said he learned some things about Gift List in the Appalachian. “She needs to be covered up a little bit,” the Hall of Fame jockey said, a reference to keeping her behind other horses. “And we saved all the ground.

“I didn't have any special instructions today; just play the break and go from there,” Castellano added. “She broke fine and I got a very good spot. Then when I asked her she gave me some amazing acceleration. She was a special winner today.”

Lynch said the pressure that Zaajel put on Aunt Pearl approaching the stretch played to his filly's advantage. “It looked like a bit of a tussle at the three-sixteenths pole (between Zaajel and Aunt Pearl) and she put herself in the race,” Lynch said of Gift List. “She looks like she'll run on … like she'll get a mile and a quarter and beyond. I'm very fortunate to have her in the barn. It looks like she's got a very bright future.”

“Off the last race, in her first U.S. debut, she gave a great run that day  Appalachian Stakes), in a race that had no pace,” Lynch said. “She's really trained so well from her last start to this, even though we had to work her on the dirt, which was a new thing to her. She was very comfortable getting over it, and was getting plenty out of her works. I had a good feeling going into this race, that if Aunt Pearl were to stub her toe, we'd have a good shot. She (Aunt Pearl) was a big obstacle, no doubt. Undefeated filly. Breeders' Cup winner. But we all know, and I've run into it myself with Oscar Performance, some of them take to this course and some just don't. It had a little bit of give in it today, and my filly had some good races on soft and heavy turf. Maybe that had something to do with it.”

Trained in the UK by Karl Richard Burke as a 2-year-old, Gift List won two of five starts, with three seconds, none of the races longer than seven furlongs.

As for the beaten favorite, Geroux said of Aunt Pearl: “She was traveling great, going to the back side, she was relaxing, I just had no horse down the lane. She's a very small filly. In my opinion, she did not move forward as much as some of those other horses.”

Trainer Brian Lynch congratulates Javier Castellano after Gift List's Edgewood Stakes win

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Diamond Oops Gives Geroux Fifth Win On Oaks Day In Twin Spires Turf Sprint

Breaking from the No. 1 post position and saving ground throughout, Diamond Oops rallied from last to win Friday's Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., giving jockey Florent Geroux his fifth win of the afternoon on the Kentucky Oaks day card.

Owned by Diamond 100 Racing Club LLC, Amy E. Dunne, D P Racing LLC and Patrick L. Biancone Racing LLC, the 5-year-old gelding by Lookin At Lucky is trained by Biancone. He covered 5 1/2 furlongs on turf rated good in 1:04.18 and paid $10 as the 4-1 second choice in the wagering.

Extravagant Kid, ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, finished second as the 2-1 favorite, beaten a neck, with Just Might a length back in third and Chaps fourth in the field of 12 older turf sprinters.

The win was the first on grass for Diamond Oops, who was bred in Kentucky by Kin Hui Racing Stables and produced from the Whywhywhy mare, Patriotic Viva. His best previous turf performance in three starts came last fall at Keeneland when second, beaten three-quarters of a length by Bowies Hero, in the G1 Shadwell Turf Mile while battling on the front end throughout.

Diamond Oops was shuffled back to the back of the field after the break as Wellable led the field through an opening quarter mile in :22.58 under pressure from Just Might. The latter took command on the turn, the half mile clocked in :45.85, but Extravagant Kid quickly emerged on the scene and appeared to be headed to victory.

Geroux and Diamond Oops began passing horses on the turn after trailing early, following Extravagant Kid on the inside. He came off the rail to pass Wellabled in midstretch, then closed strongly for the win.

“He ran big. He's an amazing horse,” said Geroux. “Patrick (Biancone) always told me this horse has a little bit of some kind of physical problems, but he has the heart of a champion. He'll run on any kind of surface, any distance, from six furlongs to a mile. We saw him last year when he almost pulled it off in the (Grade1) Shadwell Turf Mile. I have no idea what's next for him, because he runs turf, he runs dirt, he does everything.”

Winner of two G3 races in 2019 at Gulfstream Park, the Smile Sprint and Mr. Prospector, Diamond Oops finished fourth behind Mucho Gusto in the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 25. Given 4 1/2 months off, Diamond Oops then ran second in an overnight handicap at Gulfstream in June and trained up to the Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Palm Meadows in South Florida.

The victory in the $250,000 race was worth $144,150, upping his earnings to $938,590. He's won six of 15 career starts.

Brendan Walsh, who trained runner-up Extravagant Kid, said: “He ran well. Looked like he had the race won. He did that the one time he got beat here at Churchill, he made the front a little too soon. But in fairness to (jockey) Tyler (Gaffalione), he thought he had everybody covered. You can't just sit on him. He had to go with it, and we got caught out. But hat's off to the winner. They won the race. But he showed up again. We can't ask for much more than that. It would have been nice to win, but there you go.”

Geroux's five wins came in race 5 aboard Travel Column, a 2-year-old filly from the first crop of Frosted who was impressive breaking her maiden in her debut; in race 7 with Flabbergasted in an allowance race; in race 11, the G1 La Troienne aboard Monomoy Girl; and race 12 aboard Shedaresthedevil in the G1 Kentucky Oaks.

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