Despite a strong effort from multiple graded stakes winner Rushing Fall, there was no stopping the determination of Toinette as she flew past her competitors in deep stretch to win the $200,000 Edgewood Stakes presented by Forcht Bank (G3T) at Churchill Downs.
Breaking from post 7 in a field of 10, the 3-year-old was bumped out of the gate by fellow Scat Daddy filly Daddy Is a Legend, falling to the back of the pack. After a quarter-mile in 24:40, Rushing Fall set fractions of :48.21 for a half-mile and 1:11.37 for six furlongs. Shifting to the middle of the track as she entered the stretch, Toinette launched a fierce rally, driving forward to challenge Rushing Fall and hitting the wire first at the last moment to win by a neck in a final time of 1:41.70.
Daddy Is a Legend followed in third, with Got Stormy a half length behind in fourth.
"She missed the break, but (jockey) Flavien Prat didn't panic," trainer Neil Drysdale said. "He's a very good rider. She got a little bit stuck on the rail, but she has a great turn of foot, so when you ask her to go, she goes."
Toinette has taken a somewhat accelerated path in her racing career. After breaking her maiden in January at Santa Anita Park in her second career start, she won an April 14 allowance race at Keeneland before upping the ante to graded company in the Edgewood.
"The race at Keeneland was as strong a race, and she did that well," Drysdale said of Toinette's half-length victory at Keeneland over the same 1 1/16-mile distance. "That's why we felt we could jump into this. Now we can give her a bit of a breather."
Toinette was a $110,000 purchase from John Stuart's Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services consignment at the 2016 Keeneland September yearling sale by agent Shawn Dugan. Stuart bred the filly in Kentucky in partnership with Peter Bance and A R Enterprises. Toinette is owned in partnership by Ken Baca, Lisa and Nicholas Hawkins, and Joseph and Lynne Hudson. The filly has a career record of 3-0-0 in four starts, with earnings of $198,920.
