Becky Winemiller’s regally-bred Wine Princess worked five furlongs in a
bullet :58 2/5 over Keeneland’s Polytrack in a dry run for the Grade 1, $500,000
Spinster on October 6, which will mark the four-year-old filly’s first start on
synthetic track.
With jockey Shaun Bridgmohan up, Wine Princess produced fractions of :24 2/5
and :36 before galloping out six furlongs in 1:12 while working far off the rail
on her own while equipped with blinkers. The move was the fastest of 39 at the
distance for the morning.
“We brought her over here yesterday and let her gallop over it and then
worked this morning,” trainer Steve Margolis said of Wine Princess, whose home
base is Churchill Downs. “It looks like she just skipped over it. She did it in
hand and Shaun didn’t even carry a stick. She will go home and then come back
over on Saturday.”
A daughter of two Hall of Famers and Horses of the Year — Ghostzapper and
Azeri — Wine Princess will enter the Spinster off a runner-up effort in the
Locust Grove at Churchill Downs three weeks ago in which she wore blinkers for
the first time.
“She started training in them after (her second in) the Molly Pitcher at
Monmouth because Shaun and (assistant trainer) Loren (Diego) felt she was not
100 percent focused,” Margolis said. “She is in good form and comes in here off
a good race.”
As far as predicting how Wine Princess will fare on the synthetic surface,
Margolis does not have a lot to go on with Wine Princess being Azeri’s third
offspring to race.
“Bob Baffert had Take Control in California and he won two of his three
starts on the all-weather,” Margolis said. “Arienza never raced on it. With her
(Wine Princess), the timing never was there to run her on Polytrack before. We
were going to Monmouth this summer and after that could have gone to Arlington,
but we were pointing for this race.”
The 1 1/8-mile Spinster, a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff,
is also expected to attract Byrama, Closing Range, Emollient, Hard Not to Like,
Hard to Resist, On Fire Baby, Open Water, Sisterly Love and Summer Applause.
Discreet Marq is listed as possible.
Also on Spinster Day, Keeneland will host the Grade 3 Bourbon, a “Win and
You’re In” for the Juvenile Turf. The prospective field comprises All Cash, Bashart, Boji
Moon, Poker Player and Solar Flair.
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