Mor Spirit Takes Over in the Los Alamitos Futurity
Taken to school by his Hall of Fame rider early in the race, Mor Spirit was asked for his best late and responded in kind with a powerful stretch rally that carried him to an impressive 1 1/4-length victory over his stablemate in today’s Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity.
By winning today’s featured event, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert became an eight-time winner of the late-season race. Run at Hollywood Park until last year, Baffert previously connected in the important juvenile affair with: Real Quiet (1997), Captain Steve (1999), Point Given (2000), Pioneerof The Nile (2008), Lookin at Lucky (2009), Liaison (2011), Dortmund (2014). Today Mor Spirit joined that most impressive roll-call.
With several horses eager to be involved in the early pace of the 1 1/16 mile race, Gary Stevens had a few reasons to pull his young mount back as the field of seven ran into the first turn at Los Alamitos Race Course. First off, per Baffert, he wanted to educate the strapping son of Eskendereya a bit. With the trail to the 2016 Kentucky Derby off and running, the pair of crafty veterans wanted their talented charge to learn how to relax early to save energy for late. Also, confident that he was on the horse to beat, there was no reason for Stevens to want to get Mor Spirit involved in a pace battle.
Accepting of his experienced pilot’s lessons, Mor Spirit relaxed down the backstretch, as his stablemate, Toews On Ice hounded the early leader, Frank Conversation through early splits of :23.09, :47.12, and 1:11.53. Mor Spirit, sent off as the 7-10 favorite, was back in sixth, but never too far off the lead, as the leading group stayed in a tight bunch. When the real running began, it was Toews On Ice, who was coming in off three straight stakes wins, that struck the lead. Leveled off on the outside, and poised to be let loose, though, was the son of Eskendereya.
As Toews On Ice edged away from the rest, Mor Spirit began to roll. Although his more experienced rival tried hard, it was only a matter of time before Mor Spirit would reel him in. He did so nearing the sixteenth pole, and was not all out to the wire. Toews On Ice was six lengths ahead of the third place finisher, I’malreadythere.
Second in his career debut on September 27, Mor Spirit (Eskendereya--Im A Dixie Girl, by Dixie Union) came back with a powerful maiden breaking performance in his second outing, while going a mile at Santa Anita. Sent right to graded stakes racing in his next start, the Pennsylvania-bred colt shipped to Churchill Downs for the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club, where he was part of a contested early pace, before gamely holding on to second in the slop. It would seem that his education, as well as his preparation for next year’s Run for the Roses is very much a consideration for his four-time Derby winning trainer.
Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, Mor Spirit leveled his record to 4-2-2-0, while raising his career earnings to $288,400. Originally purchased for $85,000, the dark bay, born on April Fool’s Day of 2013, commanded $650,000 at the Fasig-Tipton 2yo’s in training Sale this March in Florida.
Final time for the 8 ½ furlongs over the fast track was 1:43.54. The heavy favorite paid $3.40 for the win, and with the second choice easily taking second, the Futurity exacta was only worth $8.40 for the chalk eating weasels amongst us.
With his lessons learned in a Grade 1 win, Mor Spirit gives every indication of being one of the top juveniles in the nation. He also makes the impression of a young colt with a whole lot more under the hood than he needed to get the victory today. In my opinion, he is on a very short list at the top of the 2016 Kentucky Derby contenders list as we move into a new year.