Lady Edith Overcomes Slow Start to Take Mamzelle Stakes
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Photo: Coady Photography
Lady Edith rallies between rivals to win the Mamzelle Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs
The races keep coming, and Tommy Drury keeps going with his accomplishments as a trainer.
The 49-year-old Louisville native, who saddled his first graded stakes race when Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector captured the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) last summer at Keeneland, picked up another memorable victory May 8 when David Richardson and Sandra New's Lady Edith won the $108,075 Mamzelle Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs. Her neck tally over New Boss gave Drury his first stakes victory beneath the Twin Spires.
Though the final result was what her connections wanted, the race didn't unfold how they anticipated. Normally a filly that sets or presses the pace, 24-1 shot Lady Edith played catchup early after hopping at the start.
This left her in eighth after a quarter-mile of the five-furlong Manzelle Stakes, as Wink shot to the lead after two furlongs in :22.50.
Blocked while racing two wide in traffic, she began to inch closer leaving the turn but still appeared in trouble when sixth behind a wall of horses in midstretch, as New Boss took command with a half-mile in :45.66. Then Lady Edith saw daylight, and she accelerated to nail the midstretch leader in the race's final strides under Brian Hernandez Jr.
"Everything that went wrong, went wrong, except for the finish," Drury said. "She broke slow, was stuck behind horses, and never got into a good position until late. But, what can I say, I'm just so happy to win this race and win my first stakes win at Churchill Downs for these owners."
A wide-racing Navratilova ran third, a head behind runner-up New Boss, a neck ahead of fourth-place Illegal Smile . Favored Goin' Good wound up fifth after she was steadied down the backstretch.
The winner, a 3-year-old daughter of Street Boss , ran five furlongs in firm turf in :57.04. Dismissed by the betting public with a rise into stakes company after a 5 1/4-length allowance optional claiming race on Turfway's Tapeta surface March 24, she paid $51.60.
"These type of races are the reason why we get up each morning," Drury said. "The entire stretch she was trying to find a spot to go through and when she got through it was an unbelievable feeling."
The Mamzelle was her first stakes victory and third overall win from six starts, leaving her with earnings of $123,578. In two prior stakes starts last fall, she ran fifth in the Untapable Stakes on turf at Kentucky Downs and eighth in the Songbird Stakes at Keeneland on dirt.
Bred in Kentucky by her owners, Lady Edith is the first stakes winner out the stakes-winning Yankee Gentleman mare Lady Grantham , who also has a placed starter in Mister Carson (To Honor and Serve ), a maiden claimer with earnings of $12,201.The dam also has an unraced Blame 2-year-old filly named Cousin Rose and an unnamed Mastery yearling colt.