Former claimer Skye Diamonds leads Rancho Bernardo field

Acquiring a horse through a claim and turning it into a stakes winner could be considered the signature move of trainer Bill Spawr.

He’s done it many times over his 40-year career with horses like Exchange ($50,000 claim to Grade I winner and $1 million-plus earner), Sensational Star ($32,000 claim to Del Mar sprint champion of 1990) among others.

In Sunday’s Grade III $100,000 Rancho Bernardo Handicap, Spawr will saddle 8-5 morning line favorite Skye Diamonds, a 4-year-old daughter of First Dude that he plucked for $40,000 from a winning race here a year ago who comes into the event fresh from victory in the Grade II Great Lady M Stakes at Los Alamitos on July 8.

Another Spawr wonder claim? “I think so. I really think she’s the real deal,” Spawr said recently.

Since joining the Spawr stable, Skye Diamonds has five wins and two second-place finishes in seven starts to compile the major portion of her $449,150 career earnings from eight wins in 15 career starts.

“She was consistent, she was a 3-year-old and a Cal-bred, so we just took a chance to see that it might turn out,” Spawr said of the thinking behind the claim. Spawr has consistently kept her at one-turn distances, 6 ½-7 furlongs, but did give her one mile and one 1 1/16-mile assignment. Skye Diamonds won the mile test and was second to Vale Dori in the 1 1/16-mile Grade III Adoration Stakes over a wet/fast track at Santa Anita on May 7.

“She’s better sprinting,” Spawr said. “I’ve been asked to compare her to Amazombie (2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint champion) and I could compare her even though it’s still early for her.

“I think it’s possible she could accomplish some of the things that he did in his career.”

While focusing only on the present, Spawr said that the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint here on Saturday, November 4, is “absolutely” a target. That race is at 7 furlongs, a distance Spawr considers the best for Skye Diamonds.

The field from the rail: Rockport Babe (Mario Gutierrez, 10-1), Bendable (Mike Smith, 9-5), Skye Diamonds (Tiago Pereira, 8-5), Constellation (Flavien Prat, 2-1) and Munny Spunt (Drayden Van Dyke, 15-1).

Source: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club