Bargain claim Skye Diamonds a Breeders’ Cup 2017 contender

Time, it has been said, only counts in prison.

Bill Spawr is not necessarily one who adheres to that axiom, but as one of California’s most successful and respected horsemen in this, his fourth decade of training, he recognizes that bullet workouts in the morning do not always assure victory in the afternoon.

So when bargain claim Skye Diamonds worked six furlongs on Santa Anita’s training track Thursday in a leisurely 1:16.20 under Tiago Pereira for the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint on Nov. 4, a sense of panic understandably was void from Spawr’s nervous system.

He’s been there, done that.

“Workouts and time fit the personality of the horse,” said Spawr, who claimed Skye Diamonds for $40,000 last Aug. 27 and developed the four-year-old California-bred daughter of First Dude into a graded stakes winner, namely the Grade II Great Lady M and the Grade III Rancho Bernardo Handicap.

“I haven’t changed anything in her training that has gotten us where we are today. What you don’t know about that work is if she went the last three-eighths in 35 (seconds). That doesn’t show. Working three-quarters, you show me a horse who did that on the training track.”

Spawr planned to ship Skye Diamonds south today where she’ll likely have one more breeze “five or six days from now. We’ll see how the track is.”

This is not the first rodeo for Spawr, a native of Bell, California, who turns 78 on Dec. 13. He claimed Exchange for $50,000 from her second career start on May 2, 1991. She went on to win the Grade I Santa Ana and Santa Barbara handicaps in 1993 and the Grade I Matriarch in 1994, eventually running eighth in the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Other memorable Spawr claims include Sensational Star, who earned his investment of $32,000 back tenfold; Restage, taken for $12,500 before becoming a stakes winner; Music Merci, who ran sixth in the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Sprint; and My Sonny Boy, who won the $300,000 California Cup Classic in 1990 after being claimed for $62,500.

The list would be remiss if multiple graded stakes winners Bordonaro, Enjoy the Moment and 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint champion Amazombie were not included among Spawr’s most laudable accomplishments.

“When Exchange breezed,” Spawr recalled with relish to accentuate his point, “her works were so slow they weren’t even recorded. She’d work a half mile in 55 or 56 (seconds).

“But on game day, there she is. She wouldn’t have been the same if I had let her run (train full out) all the time.

“I kept her happy, within herself.”

Princess Karen (Filly & Mare sprint) worked four furlongs Friday for Jeff Bonde in 48.80, while Champagne Room (Distaff) went five furlongs for Peter Eurton in a bullet 59.80 with Mario Gutierrez in the irons.

“Dynamite” is how Bonde termed the move. Princess Karen will ship from Santa Anita on Sunday. Recognizing full well the challenges presented in Breeders’ Cup races, Bonde said, “When you race in a world championship event, you’ve got to come armed and loaded.”