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Christmas comes early in Ashland Edward P. Evans' homebred CHRISTMAS KID (Lemon Drop Kid) just held off a late-charging Octave (Unbridled's Song) in Saturday's $500,000 Ashland S. (G1) at Keeneland, stamping her ticket for a try in the May 4 Kentucky Oaks (G1). The 1 1/16-mile Polytrack test was delayed when Hucking Hot (GB) (Desert Prince [Ire]) threw jockey Rafael Bejarano and took off around the track on her own, at one point hitting the rail, falling and getting back up to take off again. Eventually caught by the outriders, the bay miss was scratched after her exploits. The field finally loaded and the gates opened, with Elitist (Honour and Glory) using her rail post to get the early lead through a quarter in :24. Mistical Plan (Game Plan) soon took over, passing a half in :47 3/5 and three-quarters in 1:12 4/5. All the while, the James Jerkens-trained Christmas Kid and jockey Rene Douglas were biding their time in fourth. Coming into the stretch, Douglas angled his mount closer to the inside and she took off, taking the advantage and was fully extended to hold the closing Octave while stopping the teletimer in 1:42 4/5. "She kicked in down the stretch unbelievably," Douglas said. "I know Todd Pletcher's filly (Octave) and she's a nice filly. She was coming, but my horse had plenty left. I was very happy with the way she ran today. Everything went perfectly." Sent off the 9-1 fifth pick, Christmas Kid was worth $21, $5.80 and $4.20 while starting the $49 exacta and $635.80 trifecta. Octave was bumped by the eventual winner at the start and squeezed back to run near the back in the early going. She split horses on the backstretch, bumped with High Again (High Yield) on the turn and rallied six wide in the stretch to just miss as the 3-5 favorite, paying $2.40 and $2.20. It was another three parts of a length back to Dawn After Dawn (Successful Appeal), who gave back $7.80 at 54-1, and High Again ended the $2,286.20 superfecta (6-5-3-8) while taking fourth another two lengths back. Mistical Plan, Grace Happens (Aptitude), Silver Knockers (Silver Deputy) and Elitist completed the order under the wire. Christmas Kid began her sophomore campaign with a half-length score in the Tropical Park Oaks before adding the Davona Dale S. (G2) to her record. She was second to High Again in the Bonnie Miss S. (G2) prior to this one, which moved her line to 7-4-1-1 and increased her earnings to $526,587. The Virginia-bred miss is out of multiple Grade 3 winner Christmas Gift (Green Desert) and has an unraced juvenile half-brother named Elusive Gift (Elusive Quality). This is the same female family of multiple Grade 1 winner and sire Grand Slam (Gone West).
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