Several minutes after unleashing a rocket move along the rail to win the $750,000 Ashland Stakes (G1) April 3, Percy's Bar entered a crowded stakes winner's circle at Keeneland while carefully guided by jockey Luan Machado.
No horse has ever looked more at home.
With the 2 1/4-length win in the 1 1/16-mile test for top 3-year-old fillies, Percy's Bar reached the wire first for the third time in as many starts at Keeneland. Granted, last fall she was demoted from victory in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) for interference in the stretch. But she most assuredly has delivered her best at the Lexington track.
After putting grade 1 glory on hold last year, her connections saw the wait end with Friday's victory. The daughter of Upstart is campaigned by Hat Creek Racing, for which Gatewood Bell serves as managing partner. Bell, who also serves as vice president of racing at Keeneland, said there are about 25 partners in on Percy's Bar.
"It's special," said Bell, noting he practically grew up at the Lexington track.
While surrounded by well-dressed children of partners and connections who crowded into the winner's circle—"they're all either mine or my partners' kids"—Bell credited winning trainer Ben Colebrook for finding a path forward after bad weather forced changes in plans that delayed her 3-year-old debut.
"She's been doing really well and it's nice when we can lead her out of her own stall," Bell said. "But I wasn't expecting an effort like that. You never are. ... It's good, it's pretty awesome."
Also in the winner's circle was Bret Jones, president of Airdrie Stud. Percy's Bar is bred by Jones' late father and Airdrie founder Brereton Jones, who already is the breeder of two Kentucky Oaks (G1) winners and the owner of three. In a victory that would celebrate that legacy, he's in position to have a third Kentucky Oaks winner as a breeder.
"I'm just so happy," Bret Jones said as he took in dozens of smiling faces lit up by a bright afternoon sun. "That's just an incredible winner's circle; to have that many people that love horse racing. They love that filly, they love Gatewood Bell, who picked her out.
"And for Ben Colebrook to bring a filly off that off kind of layoff against this kind of field; it's almost impossible what he just did."
Besides being bred by Brereton Jones, Percy's Bar is the first grade 1-winning filly and second grade 1 winner overall for Upstart, who stands for $25,000 this season at Airdrie. Upstart's first grade 1 winner also secured that victory at Keeneland: 2022 Blue Grass Stakes (G1) winner Zandon .
Futhermore, Bell named Percy's Bar after the late Keeneland bartender Percy Poole, who for many years held court at the second floor mezzanine watering hole at Keeneland as well as well as a bar at Churchill Downs.
With plenty of goodwill behind her Friday, the biggest prerace question for Percy's Bar centered on her ability to compete at the top level in her first race in five months. She hadn't raced since finishing third in the 2025 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) Oct. 31 at Del Mar. She would answer that question in emphatic fashion in the far turn of the Ashland.
After rating in third or fourth as stakes winner French Friction led through a half-mile in :50.37 and 6 furlongs in 1:15.24, Machado found room along the rail and Percy's Bar willingly punched through to open a 3-length lead by midstretch and cruise home.
"She was pretty (much) a handful all the way around there and I was just holding her and waiting for some kind of room to let her go through," said Machado, who secured his first grade 1 win. "As soon as she got a little bit of a chance to make it through, I just gave it all to her and she ran right through it. All credit to her and the whole team."
"I expected her to be coming but, wow, that was a knockout blow," Colebrook said.
Now the question awaiting Percy's Bar will be if she can build on that effort when she stretches out to 1 1/8 miles in the Kentucky Oaks in four weeks. Colebrook, who landed his first grade 1 win since 2018 when he sent out Knicks Go to victory in the Breeders' Futurity (G1) at Keeneland, noted that a strong foundation of five starts last year will help in that regard.
"I think she can improve. I mean, you have to worry a little bit about the bounce, but I think she'll be fine," Colebrook said of the filly who has won or placed in all six of her starts. "She doesn't seem like a filly that's a bounce candidate, because she's very consistent."
As part of the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, Percy's Bar earned 100 qualifying points for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks (G1), bringing her total to 114. The second- through fifth-place finishers earned points on a 50-25-15-10 scale.
Grade 2 winner Zany, sent off the 3-5 favorite, saw her perfect record come to an end in start number four but the daughter of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah raced well from a stalking position three or four wide before finishing second in her grade 1 debut. The Repole Stable standout appears well positioned to go onto the Kentucky Oaks.
"I thought she ran very well," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "She was closing well at the end. We just didn't have time going to the first wire to get up in time. But I liked the way she finished, I liked the way she was gaining at the end, I liked the way she galloped out. She got a good education in it, got a lot of kickback, got some cover; a lot of things that I think will help her at Churchill."
George Krikorian's Star Actress rallied from last of six to secure a grade 1 placing in her stakes debut.
Percy's Bar, of course, was purchased at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale where Bell went to $52,000 to land her from the Airdrie Stud consignment. She's out of Honestly Deb, a daughter of 2010 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Super Saver who has produced two winners from as many starters.
While Percy's Bar has reached the wire first in all three of her starts at Keeneland, the winner of last year's Debutante Stakes at Churchill also has reached the wire first in all four of her starts in Kentucky. The plan is to put that record on the line in four weeks.
