Back Surgery Can't Slow Down Spawr
You can’t keep a good man down, the saying goes, and anyone who’s been around racing for any length of time knows Bill Spawr is a good man, especially with horses.
The 74-year-old trainer is usually the first one at the track every morning and the first one to leave, unless he has a horse running, like he did yesterday, when first-time starter Matriculate ran in the first race, winning off by 6 ½ lengths to give jockey Elvis Trujillo his 2,000th career victory.
With the aid of a four-pronged walker, Spawr was back on the beat
Sunday morning recovering from back surgery, which didn’t keep him out
for long.
“I was training Monday at 9 in the morning, had surgery at 2 p.m.
and was back at the barn the next day,” Spawr said. “It was the first
day I missed in 11 years. A disc in my L3 vertebrae broke and was
pushing down on a nerve in my right knee causing numbness.
“I was lucky to have the surgery done so quickly; I hope to shed this walker very soon.”
The 31-year-old Trujillo, meanwhile, had an easy score aboard
Matriculate, a 3-year-old son of Lucky Pulpit. “I want to thank the
trainers and owners on the East Coast and out here who have been so good
to me,” said the native of Panama, who is represented by Tom Knust.
“Trainers like Bill Spawr, Peter Miller, Jerry Hollendorfer and Steve
DiMauro have helped me so much. I’d like to win 2,000 more. With God’s
help and if I stay healthy, hopefully I can.”
Trujillo will be at Pimlico on Saturday, Preakness Day, to ride Oscar Party for Jim Cassidy in the Grade III Gallorette Stakes.
FINISH LINES.
On a glorious Mothers’ Day morning at Santa Anita, there were 243
recorded workouts, including 13 on the turf and five on the training
track. Topping the list were 28 for Jerry Hollendorfer, including 2013 Met Mile winner Sahara Sky, who went in company with Outside Nashville, getting six furlong times of 1:14.20 and 1:14, respectively. Sahara Sky is ticketed for this year’s Met Mile on Belmont Day, June 6. It wasn’t a one-day record for Hollendorfer workers, “but it was close,” said assistant Dan Ward . . . Delta Jackpot winner Ocho Ocho Ocho is back with trainer Jim Cassidy after finishing 14th
in the Kentucky Derby but future plans are on hold. “He ran well,”
Cassidy said. “It was just a little too far him. He came back in good
form, but we backed off him a bit. I really don’t have anything I’m
pointing to right now.” . . . Longevity personified: Jose “Vinny” Castaneda, the groom for My Sweet Addiction, upset winner of Saturday’s Grade I Vanity Stakes, has been with the barn through three generations since the 1960s, starting with Farrell Jones, then his son, Gary Jones, and now Gary’s son, Marty, who trains My Sweet Addiction for owner/breeder Pamela Ziebarth . . . Racing rarity: Canny Nanny, Market Magic, Savings Account and Compelling Case finished one, two, three, four in Saturday’s 10th
race at Churchill Downs. Each horse went off at odds of 7-2 . . .
Through 10 days of the Spring Meet, favorites are winning at 31.40
percent (27 of 86), according to Santa Anita’s ever-efficient stat man Jason Hom.
Favorites on dirt are scoring at 28.57 percent (16 of 56); on turf at
36.67 (11 of 30); odds-on favorites at 30.77 (four of 13); in-the-money
favorites at 67.44 (58 of 86); and in-the-money odds-on favorites at
76.92 (10 of 13) . . . The Great Race Place presents its Santa Anita Carnival on Memorial Day weekend, Saturday, May 23
through Monday, May 25. The entire family is invited for three days of
live racing, carnival rides, games and prizes, with unlimited rides for
children for only $10. Admission and parking to the Infield is free
through Gate 6 off Colorado Place.
Source: Santa Anita Park