Pounded into 70 cents on the dollar for his sophomore debut in Saturday's GIII Robert B. Lewis S., Mor Spirit (Eskendereya) sat a soft trip off a pair of stretchout sprinters and called upon his superior stamina and prior racetrack experience to take this next step by a well-measured 1 1/4 lengths.
An $85,000 purchase out of the 2014 Fasig-Tipton October sale, Mor Spirit breezed an eighth of a mile in a sparkling :10 1/5 ahead of last year's Fasig-Tipton Florida March Sale and was hammered down for $650,000. Favored in each of his previous four trips to the post, Mor Spirit made a strong middle move to lead into the stretch of a 6 1/2-furlong maiden at this track Sept. 27 before settling for second, then stretched out to a mile to score by a professional 4 1/4 lengths Oct. 23. Sent away from California for the first time for Churchill's GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Nov. 28, the dark bay caught a sloppy strip, but fought it out gamely on a strong pace and was outfinished by the talented Eclipse Award finalist Airoforce. He most recently validated 7-10 favoritism when a much-the-best winner from stablemate Toews On Ice (Archarcharch) in the GI Los Alamitos Futurity and took the lion's share of the pari-mutuel action Saturday.
Content to lay third behind the stretchout speed of I Will Score (Roman Ruler) and Uncle Lino (Uncle Mo), Mor Spirit was eased out into the clear and outside of any potential traffic woes as a sensible pace developed down to his inside. Asked to lengthen his stride by Gary Stevens leaving the three-eighths marker astern, Mor Spirit loomed boldly three wide outside of Uncle Lino at the quarter pole and looked as if he could motor right past. But Stevens was forced to pull his stick through to his left hand with a furlong and a half to the wire and Mor Spirit grabbed the top two with 100 yards to race before edging clear.
“We thought this race might come up the way it did,” said trainer Bob Baffert, winning this for the sixth time and third time in four years. “I thought the last race [Los Alamitos Futurity] was a very important race because when I got him back from Kentucky [in the Kentucky Jockey Club], [jockey] Martin [Garcia] had him on the lead because it was muddy and I had shipped him, and he didn't want to do that. So the way Gary rode him at Los Alamitos, he made him get back and he really educated him and he got the win.
Baffert continued, “Today was the same thing: get the win and educate him at the same time. You can do that when you have this kind of horse, with his style. You know he's a really good horse.”
The winner hails from the extended female family of champion 3-year-old filly Stellar Wind (Curlin) as well as GISW Great Hunter (Aptitude).
Saturday, Santa Anita Park
ROBERT B. LEWIS S.-GIII, $150,345, SA, 2-6, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:43.21, ft.
1–MOR SPIRIT, 124, r, 3, by Eskendereya
1st Dam: Im a Dixie Girl (MSW & GSP, $167,320),
by Dixie Union
2nd Dam: Im Out First, by Allen's Prospect
3rd Dam: Sequins, by Northern Fashion
($85,000 Ylg '14 FTKOCT; $650,000 2yo '15 FTFMAR).
O-Michael Lund Petersen; B-Elkstone Group, LLC (PA); T-Bob
Baffert; J-Gary L. Stevens. $90,000. Lifetime Record: GISW,
5-3-2-0, $378,400. Werk Nick Rating: C+. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”allied-bloodstock-shell”][bullet ad=”hillndale-lanni-purchased”][bullet ad=”select-sales-hip-403-ftkfeb”][bullet ad=”pa-bred”]
2–Uncle Lino, 119, c, 3, Uncle Mo–Haysee, by Orientate.
($52,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Tom Mansor, Purple Shamrock
Racing & Gary Sherlock; B-JPR Stable, LLC (KY); T-Gary
Sherlock. $30,000.[bullet ad=”darbydan-shell”]
3–I Will Score, 119, c, 3, Roman Ruler–Grassy Nellie, by Belong
to Me. O/B-Hans Poetsch (KY); T-Jerry Hollendorfer. $18,000.
Margins: 1HF, HF, 5 3/4. Odds: 0.70, 7.40, 2.50.
Also Ran: Dressed in Hermes, Let's Meet in Rio, Path of David. Scratched: Laoban.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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