Marks Mine Can Overcome Rail in Spring Fever

If there are rich races for California-breds at Santa Anita, count on Steve Specht to be there.

The Bay Area-based trainer is on hand at The Great Race Place with Marks Mine, winner of half of her 16 starts, for Saturday’s $125,000 Spring Fever, one of five stakes races that day in the Golden State Series for Cal-breds or Cal-sired horses.

A 4-year-old Benchmark filly owned and bred by Mr. and Mrs. Larry Williams, Marks Mine drew the rail and will have to use her abundance of speed to gain a favorable position in the six furlong race.

“Once in a while she’ll take a stutter step leaving there and not get away so great, but most of the time she leaves there in a hurry, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything directly to her outside that’s going to pester her too much,” Specht said as he perused the past performances.

“She shipped down here in good shape and she’ll be tough.”

The field for the Spring Fever: Marks Mine, Frank Alvarado; Could Be Trouble, Martin Garcia; Sudden Sunday, Victor Espinoza; Yes She’s Unusual, Tyler Baze; Quizzical, Drayden Van Dyke; Our Purse Creation, Rafael Bejarano; Warren’s Veneda, Joe Talamo; and Top Kisser, Corey Nakatani.